FAISALABAD, Nov 29: District Police Officer Muhammad Amin Wains claimed on Tuesday to have busted a 12-member gang of hardened criminals involved in dozens of dacoity and murder cases.

Speaking at a news conference here, he said the gang was also committing crimes in Sheikhupura and Nankana Sahib districts and had become a challenge for the police force.

Mr Wains said a team, headed by Khanuana police post in-charge SI Bashir Ahmed, found a clue to the alleged outlaws and succeeded in arresting them from their hideouts in different places.

The gang was being operated by notorious criminal Imtiaz Taji, he said and added that the robbers were also collecting extortion tax from people by threatening them with dire consequences.

He said five of the arrested outlaws — Imtiaz Ahmed, Zaheer Ahmed, Qaisar Ijaz, Rasoolan Bibi and Idrees Ahmed — were residents of Jaranwala while Rehmat Ali belonged to Muridke.

He said six other bandits — Iqbal, Arshad, Amanat Ali, Fayyaz Ahmed, Yasir Saeed and Mukhtar Ahmed — were residents of various localities of Sheikhupura.

The DPO claimed that the police team recovered five kalashnikovs, two guns, three rifles, one pistol and numerous rounds of bullets from the outlaws. Six police uniforms and three lifted vehicles had also been taken into custody, he said.