SUKKUR, July 22: A woman and her two associates were arrested in a raid on a house in the Bachal Shah Miani area within the remit of the Airport police station in Sukkur on a tip-off that the gang was involved in kidnapping for ransom, dacoities and other heinous crimes, Sukkur police claimed on Sunday evening.

They said that another member of the gang was at large and more raids were being carried out to arrest him.

The woman, Gulshan aka Guddi, wife of Mukhtiar Ali Shaikh, resident of Shikarpur, was presented to the media along with the other arrested suspects, and she admitted she headed the gang. She said she was inclined to the profession to save her husband and children from starvation. She said she was currently at large on bail in a case.

Sukkur SSP Irfan Shaikh told a press conference in his office that Guddi, Manzoor, son of Rahib Ali, and Nabi Bukhsh aka Nabboo Khurrus were arrested in the raid while Sarwar Shaikh managed to escape arrest. All the three suspects were wanted to the Hyderabad, Shikarpur and Khairpur police in several cases of heinous crimes.

Two Kalashnikovs, two TT pistols and a sizeable quantity of ammunition were seized from the arrested suspects, he claimed.

The SSP said that Guddi used to trap affluent people by contacting them by phone and offering friendship. “After making friendship, she calls her new friend to a particular place from where her associates kidnap him,” he said. The gang used to extort a heavy ransom from his family, he said, adding that many people, mainly businessmen and traders, had fallen prey to the gang.

Recently, he said, the gang had committed a robbery in the houses of a local trader, Darshan Das, and another man, Mohammad Sharif Ansari, in Rohri. Before planning the robbery, Guddi visited the houses to collect essential information, including the daily routine of the families, he added.

The SSP said that DSP Haji Masoodur Rasool led a team comprising SHO of the Abad police station Syed Mushtaq Shah, Abdul Malik Kamanger of Madadgar ‘15’ and another officer, Khalid Raza Khilji, to carry out the raid. He said that the car, believed to be used in kidnapping people and committing dacoities, was also seized from the suspects.

Replying to journalists’ questions, Guddi said her husband, Mukhtiar Shaikh, had no livelihood and the family was starving. Therefore, she said, she was compelled to adopt this profession.

She also endorsed the SSP’s claims about her and her gang’s modus operandi.