KHANEWAL, Sept 14: Police killed on Sunday evening three alleged wanted criminals bearing each Rs300,000 head money in a two-hour long ‘encounter’ in the Mumtazabad area of Multan, 66 kilometres from Khanewal.

Khanewal District Police Officer (DPO) Kamran Khan told Dawn police was tipped off that some alleged criminals were present in a house at Mumtazabad in Multan.

Policemen, led by the DPO, raided the house about two hours before iftar.

Seeing policemen, the criminals opened fire and the raiding officials also retaliated by firing. The DPO said the crossfire was witnessed by a number of people.

After a two-hour gunfire, police killed ‘notorious’ culprits of the Khani gang later identified as Arshad Gujjar, Aslam Neela and Sagheer Vehniwala, alias Sagheera.

DPO Kamran said the police also found two kilogramme gold, a hand-grenade, guns and bullets near the bodies.

Jhang DPO Mian Javed Islam said that the culprits had looted the gold from a jeweler, Ashiq, in Shorkot on Saturday.

He said Khanewal police had asked Ashiq to come and identify the gold seized from the culprits.

The Khanewal DPO said the culprits were also wanted to Khanewal police for a number of crimes, including murder, dacoity and theft.

Also, traders in Shorkot observed a complete shutter-down strike in protest against the dacoity at the jewelry shop. They took out a protest rally against ‘inefficiency’ of police.