QUETTA, Sept 21: Police on Saturday claimed to have arrested three members of a gang allegedly involved in kidnapping for ransom cases.

Addressing a press conference, the Capital City Police Officer, Quetta, Mir Zubair Mehmood, said a vehicle coming from Kuchlak was signalled to stop at a picket in the Nohasar area near Quetta, but people travelling in it opened fire at police.

After a brief shootout, he said, two assailants were captured and three others escaped.

The CCPO identified those arrested as Mohammad Ishaq Tareen, a resident of Qila Abdullah district, and Daro Khan Achakzai, a resident of the Killi Barat area.

“During interrogation, the arrested men told police that they had kidnapped one Mirza Khan Kharoti and freed him after receiving ransom. They also said that they used to receive the ransom money near the Pak-Afghan border,” he said.

Mr Mehmood said on information provided by the suspects, a police team raided a place and took into custody one of the three assailants who had escaped. A Kalashnikov was seized.

The CCPO said the detainees told police that they had kidnapped three men from Ziarat and committed various crimes of heinous nature in Chaman.

He said two gangs were behind kidnapping of traders, doctors and other people in Quetta and expressed the hope that they would be arrested soon.

The CCPO said several suspects arrested earlier were freed by courts because of lack of evidence.

He admitted that there were black sheep in the police department and added that some of them had been sacked.

He said the army had been training police and the Balochistan Constabulary to meet the challenge of terrorism. “Pakistan Army provided 1,000 small machine-guns and ammunition for training of police personnel,” he said.