July 16, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 30, 1428

PESHAWAR, July 15: Police killed a robber, allegedly wanted in over a dozen cases, in an ‘encounter’ near Hayatabad on late Saturday night.

Police identified the slain man as Mir Afzal alias Afzal Punjabi, a resident of Mansehra district.

Khyber police station officials claimed that they had come under fire while they were on a routine patrol near Achini Khwar. In the alleged gunfight, police said they killed Afzal whereas his other accomplices managed to flee.

“Afzal was earlier arrested for carrying out robberies in police uniform. However, he was released on bail by a local court,” a senior police official said at a briefing on Sunday.

The official said police recovered a Kalashnikov rifle and tranquiliser injections from the possession of the death. He said the criminal gang would inject tranquilisers to household inmates and steal their belongings. “This gang has been operating in the posh Hayatabad Township and its neighbourhoods,” the official added.

He cited various cases of robberies and theft registered against the accused and his gang at different police stations, including Daudzai, Bhadabher, Chamkani and Town police stations in Peshawar and Pabbi and Nowshera Kalan police stations in Nowshera district.

“The accused was mostly wanted in cases registered under Section 17(3) of the Offence Against Property (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979, at different police stations since 2003,” the official added.