GUJRAT, Nov 15: Police claimed on Thursday to have busted a seven-member gang of inter-district dacoits.

SSP Riaz Ahmad told newsmen at a press conference that the dacoits were arrested following an encounter near Dinga.

SSP Sialkot informed Gujrat police by telephone that some dacoits, after snatching a car (RIV 3363) from Sialkot, were seen going to Gujrat.

A joint police party spotted the dacoits at Dera Qadarbad, Dinga. The dacoits opened fire on police who retaliated. The dacoits surrendered after a three-hour encounter.

The dacoits were identified as Asif, Ansar, Imran, Zeeshan, Ejaz Ahmad, Afzal Ahmad and Asghar.

A kalashnikov, two rifles, a pump action gun, a 30-bore pistol, two stolen motorcycles and a car were recovered from the possession of the dacoits.

Meanwhile, the district police claimed to have arrested four accused involved in the killing of two people in the lock-up of Kunjah police station.

Six other accused were at large, a police spokesman told Dawn on Thursday.

He said that Kunjah police had registered a case against 13 people for killing their rivals — M. Akhtar and Abdul Lateef — and injuring five others in police lock-up on Nov 9, 2001.

Iftikhar Ahmad, Ahsan, Nazir and a principal accused ASI M. Ansar of the Mandi Bahauddin police were arrested the same day.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the mastermind behind the killings was ASI Ansar. He informed his accomplices that in the wake of Nov 9 strike no policeman would be present in Kunjah police station.

The police, on the revelations of Ansar, raided an outhouse in Kissan locality and arrested principal accused Akhtar, Riaz and Dilawar Hussain.

Identifying other accused as Munawwar Hussain, Irfan, Tajammul Hussain, Mujahid Hussain, Tariq Farooq and Arshad, police claimed that they had gone abroad.

CAR RECOVERED: CIA police recovered a stolen car from the outhouse of a Nazim of Gollayki union council on Thursday.