KARACHI: Six suspects, including two alleged militants, were shot dead in separate ‘encounters’ in the city on Sunday, officials said.

In the Mominabad area of Orangi Town two suspected militants — Qasim and Rehmat, alias Rehmati — were killed in an ‘encounter’ early on Sunday, the officials said.

“Qasim was a financer of the Tehreek-i- Taliban (Swat) and wanted by the police in more than 20 criminal cases,” said SSP-West Azfar Mahesar.

Rehmat was an accomplice of Qasim and involved in land-grabbing and drug trafficking. They were also involved in killing policemen, added the officer. The additional IG of Karachi police and the Karachi police IG announced a cash reward for the police party.

The police on Sunday night claimed to have killed two alleged gangsters in an ‘encounter’ in Kalakot.

A police party conducted a raid on information of presence of suspects in Khajji Gali on Faqir Mohammed Road, where they were targeted by gunmen.

The police returned fire and gunned down two suspects, claimed Kalakot SHO Safdar Mashwani.

He identified the dead as Abdul Majid, alias Achanak, and Subhan, alias Haji, allegedly involved in several criminal cases.

They were members of the Noor Mohammed, alias Baba Ladla, gang, added the officer.

In a separate encounter in Mithadar, a suspected robber was shot dead, the police said.

They said that three suspects stormed a shop in Mithadar with the intention to rob it. A police party rushed to the spot after receiving information by a passer-by. The police and alleged robbers exchanged gunfire in which a suspect was killed, claimed City SSP Sheeraz Nazeer. Two accomplices of the suspect, whose identity remained unclear, escaped.

The police claimed to have seized a pistol from his possession.

In Gulshan-i-Iqbal, another suspected robber was shot dead while his accomplice fled.

The police claimed that suspects were looting citizens near the Nipa traffic intersection in the morning when a police party on patrol reached there.

On seeing the police the suspects opened fire on them for which the police also returned fire, killing a suspect identified as 22-year-old Fahad Sheikh. His accomplice escaped.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2014