KARACHI: Five suspected gangsters were killed in two alleged encounters in Malir and Lyari on Sunday, officials said.

A spokesperson for the Sindh Rangers said that four suspected gangsters were gunned down in the Malir area, while one in Lyari in separate encounters with the paramilitary troops.

He added that the troops carried out a raid in Bawan Shah Goth, Malir, on Sunday morning. On seeing the Rangers personnel, the suspects resorted to firing and the troops returned fire. In the ensuing encounter, four ‘notorious gangsters’ were killed, he said.

The bodies were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.

The spokesperson said the dead men were associated with the Baba Ladla gang of Lyari.

He said one of the dead was identified as Shoaib, alias Doctor.

The Malir City police said that some relatives of the other three dead men also approached the police and took their bodies for burial.

They were identified as Gul Hasan, Nasir and Ali Akbar. All of them were residents of Lyari, said the police.

A source said that Shoaib Singulanewala was a senior operative of the gang being led by Ghaffar Zikri, who had joined hands with Baba Ladla after the murder of Zafar Baloch, the spokesman for the outlawed Peoples Amn Committee.

The source said that Shoaib had fled abroad but returned when the PAC was divided between the Uzair Baloch and Baba Ladla groups.

The Rangers claimed to have seized a grenade launcher, four sub-machine guns, two pistols, five uniforms of the Frontier Constabulary, three police uniforms, two police caps, two police belts, two military pattern belts, a camera, a laser light and other arms and ammunition from them.

In another incident in Lyari, the Rangers claimed to have killed a man, Mohammed Suleman, in an alleged encounter in Rangiwara in the early hours of Sunday.

The Rangers spokesperson said that the dead man belonged to the Uzair Baloch group. He was allegedly involved in cases of murder, kidnapping for ransom and extortion, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2014