MULTAN, Jan 4: An alleged dacoit was killed in an ‘encounter’ on Friday morning, Multan police claimed.

An official press release claimed that some four unidentified dacoits snatched a car (MNY-5735) from Dr Altaf Husain on Dec 24 last at gunpoint in Gulgasht Colony.

Later, they contacted Dr Altaf by phone and demanded ransom of Rs 0.1 million to return the car. “They had been calling the doctor on his cell phone since Dec 29 last,” the release said.

The outlaws contacted the doctor from various public call offices (PCOs) of the city. On Thursday night, they and the car owner decided to meet at midnight near the new bypass on Bosan Road to transact the deal. Dr Altaf, however, informed the police.

“When the car owner and the police reached at the venue, the dacoits spotted police and opened fire. Police retaliated. As a result, one of the three bandits died while others fled away taking benefit of the darkness,” it said.

Police recovered the car, an AK-47 rifle and a pistol along with several rounds. The dead was identified as Zubair alias Dr Asim, a resident of Faridabad Colony, Khanewal.

“The police are now after other members of the gang through the documents recovered on Zubair’s body,” police claimed, adding there are some 14 cases of theft and dacoity registered against the deceased in various police stations of Multan and Khanewal districts.

The acting Multan district police chief, Javed Shah, announced rewards and certificates for the police officials who took part in the encounter.

But the news of a police raid at a PCO in Nawan Shehr area of the city on Thursday night and subsequent arrest of three persons, which appeared in the local press on Friday morning, has made the encounter dubious.

Neighbouring shopkeepers of the PCO told reporters that a police contingent reached the call office and took into custody a man present inside and two others sitting in a car parked along the road. When newsmen contacted police at night and later in day on Friday, it refused to disclose the identity of the arrested.

An Urdu daily, however, also carried the name of Zubair among the arrested on Friday.

The new bypass on Bosan Road had been a favourite place for Multan police to conduct ‘managed’ encounters with ‘outlaws’ in the past when extra-judicial killings were in vogue under the patronage of former civilian rulers of the Punjab.