KARACHI: A woman police constable and a volunteer associated with the Police Qaumi Razakar were shot dead in an attack on a police complaint cell in Liaquatabad on Saturday, officials said.

They added that gunmen on a motorbike fired shots at the police tented post set up along the main road facing Firdous Shopping Centre in line with security arrangements devised by the city police authorities. The firing left 32-year-old assistant sub-inspector of Police Qaumi Razakar dead on the spot and Constable Kiran Umar badly wounded.

“The policewoman was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where she died early in the morning,” said the area’s sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), DSP Wajahat Hussain. “She was posted at the Liaquatabad Women Police Station and deployed at the police complaint cell, which has been set up in a roadside tent for more than a week. She was a resident of Liaquatabad No 5 and mother of two.”

He said the police had found spent casings of .22mm bullets at the crime scene. It was quite strange, he said, as the history of policemen’s killings suggested that the attackers mostly used 9mm and 30-bore pistols to execute the job.

“The casings have been sent to the forensic laboratory for a detailed examination. The Liaquatabad police have registered an FIR (124/2014) under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code and under Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act against unknown suspects,” added the area SDPO.

Two ‘militants’ shot dead

Two suspected militants were killed in an exchange of gunfire with police and Rangers in Sohrab Goth in the evening, officials said.

They added that the joint raid of the law enforcement agencies triggered heavy firing between the two sides and finally it left two of the militants dead.

“The police along with Rangers spotted a hideout near the Indus Ground in Sohrab Goth,” said area SDPO Qamar Ahmed. “As the police and Rangers were cordoning off the area, they came under heavy gunfire from the militants as they attempted to escape. However, we returned fire and killed two of them.”

When questioned, he said the police suspected that one of the militants ran away despite the presence of heavy contingent of police and Rangers.

“The militants are not yet identified but we have reason and findings of initial investigations to believe that they were associated with a banned militant outfit. The bodies have been shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities,” added DSP Ahmed.

Car-tracker firm man killed

An employee of a car tracking company was killed and a colleague of his was wounded in the firing allegedly by car lifters in the Manghopir area while they were trying to recover a vehicle snatched a few days back, police said.

They said a few employees of the company spotted a Hi-roof (CU-7273), which had been snatched in the Gulberg area a few days back, in the Sultanabad area of Manghopir. They said the tracker company’s employees were waiting for the vehicle to emerge on the main road so they could intercept it.

“However, when the vehicle came on the main road and the company’s vehicle tried to intercept it, the carjackers fired shots and wounded the two employees — Waheeduddin and Muhammad Nasir. Later 45-year-old Waheed died in the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital,” said Sub-Inspector Aslam Shah at the Manghopir police station.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2014