DERA GHAZI KHAN: Members of the notorious Attaullah Pat gang kidnapped seven policemen, among them an assistant sub-inspector, of the Bangla Ichha police station in Rajanpur’s Rojhan tehsil, about 200 kilometres from here, on Sunday.

Teams of various police stations launched a search in the riverine area for the personnel, sources told Dawn.

ASI Muzammil and constables Jamshaid, Safdar Hussain, Zees­han Haider, Sabir Hussain, Mohammad Shakir and Mohammad Luqman were kidnapped in Patan Tagoo Moosani Mauza Kapra when they were patrolling the area on a boat in the Indus.

The sources said the kidnappers were the remnants of the Chotoo gang who had managed to flee last year’s operation. The gangsters had regrouped and started their unlawful activities, they said, adding that the gangsters were not more than 30 and belonged to the Bangla Ichha and Shah Wali areas of Rojhan.

Police take dacoits’ families into custody for negotiations

Punjab Inspector General of Police Arif Nawaz told Dawn that they were carrying out a search operation for safe recovery of all the policemen. He said a message had been sent to the dacoits to release the policemen and surrender. “Police will launch an operation against the kidnappers if negotiations fail.”

He said the regional and district police officers of Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan and Elite Force personnel had been sent to the area to supervise the deployment.

Rajanpur DPO Attiq Tahir said police had cordoned off the area and taken members of dacoits’ families into custody for negotiations.

Rojhan DSP Zafar Buzdar said the search operation was going on and a case against the kidnappers would soon be registered at the Bangla Ichha police station.

Dera Ghazi Khan Regional Police Officer Rehmatullah Niazi told Dawn that he himself was supervising the recovery operation.

The water level in the Indus rises during summer and people start cultivating sugarcane in the area. The increase in the water level makes it difficult for police to man the 40-50km kacha area.

Despite the grand operation launched in April last year by security forces, including the army, against members of the Chotoo gang, some gangsters returned to the area and resumed criminal activities over the past few months.

They killed three people, including Goth Mazari SHO Sajjad Ramdani, on July 12 this year and attacked a boat on Aug 1, killing policeman Khalid Gohar and a boatman.

Four operations had been launched against the gangsters since 2011. The last such operation was carried out in April 2016 after which the Punjab police had established ‘Riverine Force’ trained by the army to patrol the area.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2017