KARACHI, Oct 21: Two dacoits were killed and their accomplice was injured and arrested in a shootout with police near Guru Mandar on Tuesday, police and witnesses said.

They said that the Special Investigation Unit of Jamshed Town police were conducting surveillance of the vicinity on a tip-off when the personnel spotted four suspects in a white-coloured Toyota Corolla (AQE-351) near Guru Mandar at around 1.35pm. Two SIU personnel on a motorcycle signalled the suspects to stop, but they sped away and turned into a lane near Masjid-i-Tanzeelul Islam.

They said the SIU men joined by two other teams, one in a private car and the other in police mobile van, chased the suspects and surrounded them.

SIU chief SP Gul Hameed Samoo told Dawn that the bandits shot at the policemen who returned fire. During the shootout, one of the suspects, Imran Bhatti, was killed and his two accomplices were wounded, one of them fatally. “A constable was also shot and wounded in the encounter,” he added.

The bodies and the injured were shifted to the Civil Hospital where Griffin alias Amir, son of Sameul, also succumbed to the wounds.

Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal section told Dawn that Imran Bhatti received six bullets, four in the upper torso, and Griffan four bullets. They said that William Masih, son of Javed Masih, sustained three bullets in his lower torso and he was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for further treatment.

The SIU chief said that the police seized a 7mm rifle, an MP-5 gun, a 9mm pistol and two TT pistols from the dacoits’ custody. He said that the dacoits had planned to commit a house robbery in the locality with the assistance of the watchman. The police also took into custody the watchman who had given the required information about the residents to the dacoits. He said the gang was involved in dozens of house robberies and dacoities in different parts of the city.

Man shot dead