MULTAN, June 14: A worker at a local filling station lost his life in what turned out to be a poorly-executed undercover operation of the Karachi police anti car-lifting cell for apprehending a gang of dacoits.

According to the information gleaned by this correspondent, police of the port city had arrested Shaukat and Qamar Abbas some time back on charges of car-snatching.

Working on the information extracted from the accused, a team of the cell led by Inspector Ismail Lashari arrived in Multan the other day along with Shaukat and Qamar in the guise of people wanting to buy a car.

Shaukat and Qamar contacted their accomplices here and set Saturday morning for a meeting at a petrol pump on the busy Khanewal Road.

The police team, accompanied by the accused, reached the petrol pump on time. The people whom the police were trying to trap, arrived in a Suzuki Cultus but immediately assessed the situation and opened fire on the police, who were in their civvies. An employee of the petrol pump, Sheikh Fayyaz, was caught in the crossfire and sustained injuries. He died on his way to the hospital.

A constable of the Karachi police, Zubair, was also fired at and injured. He was admitted to the Nishtar Hospital. The outlaws fled away before the police could return fire. The incident created panic in the area with people running helter-skelter.

A police source said though the Karachi police team had informed senior police officials of Multan about what they were going to do, the area police had not been alerted for any untoward situation.

He said the choice of a petrol pump for the drama was also objectionable as death toll would have been much higher had a full-scale shootout ensued between the outlaws and police.

When contacted, New Multan SHO Saifullah Gujjar claimed to have arrested two of the five outlaws who had opened fire on the petrol pump. He however refused to disclose their identity. He said the police had registered a case and the other three accused would be nabbed within the next 24 hours.