Islamabad:
In a bizarre incident, two sisters in Pakistan's Punjab province withdrew Rs 17 lakh from their account and burnt them in front of the bank branch.
Naheed, 40, and Rubina, 35, of Jhelum's Bilal Town area visited the Chak Nasa branch of National Bank of Pakistan three days ago to withdraw Rs 1.7 million from a fixed deposit account, Jhelum's district police officer Afzal Butt said.
Due to procedural and other issues involved, the bank manager told the sisters that their request could not be met immediately, the police officer said.
So, the two women visited the bank branch again yesterday and asked the manager to give them the money.
"The sisters were handed over the money at about noon. They took the currency notes outside the branch and simply set them afire," Butt was quoted as saying by Dawn daily.
An eyewitness told police that when a shopkeeper and a passer-by tried to stop the sisters from burning the notes, the elder one took out a pistol and said they had every right to do whatever they wanted to.
Soon, a large number of people gathered around the two women, only to look at the currency notes burning.
Police later arrived at the scene and collected the ashes, the report said.
It said that the women had deposited Rs 28 lakh with the bank about a year ago after selling the property they had inherited from their father Raja Muhammad Iqbal, who was killed in mysterious circumstances a couple of years ago.
Butt said the sisters were unmarried and resided separately from their two younger brothers.
All the siblings are suffering from mental ailments, some residents of their neighbourhood said, according to the report.