KARACHI, May 17: A police officer, a civilian, and two suspected members of the Rehman Dakait gang were killed in a four-hour-long shootout between police and gangsters in a shanty town of Hub early on Tuesday morning. Police said that SHO Kalakot Arshad Butt, truck cleaner Ghulam Hussain, and two suspected gang members Lutfullah and Lal Muhammad were killed in the raid. Besides, 12 policemen, 3 Rangers personnel, four suspected gangsters and six civilians were wounded.

None of the suspected gangsters could be arrested in the four-hour-long exchange of fire. Police claimed that Rehman Dakait as well as the wounded gangsters managed to flee taking advantage of darkness and under the cover of firing rockets.

The injured police officials were Lyari Town Police Officer ASP Omar Shahid, DSP Aslam Khan, DSP Irfan Bahadur, ASI Ghulam Abbas, head constables Jawed Iqbal, Amir Khan, Rahim Zeb, Babar Hashmi, and constables Majeed Nizami, Raheel, Mohammad Jawed and Shahid Ahmed. Out of 20 Rangers personnel, who participated in the raid, three were wounded including Maj Saifullah, Sepoy Liaquat Ali and Sepoy Mohammed Salim.

Six injured civilians were Imran Khan, Rehmatullah, Umer, Abdur Rasheed, Abdul Latif and Sahib Khan.

The raid was planned early in the morning after Lyari police got a tip-off that Rehman Dakait had come to stay at his residence known as white-house located in Zehri Goth, Hub.

ASP Hub Amir Farooqui told Dawn that they were informed about the raid early in the morning by Karachi police. “We coordinated with them and provided some police strength. We raided the spotted area in Zehri Goth and as we reached there, we came under firing,” he added.

He said that thousands of rounds were fired from 4am to 8am. Almost 30 police mobile vans and 200 officials of police and Rangers participated in the raid.

Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui said that the action was a part of operation against ongoing Lyari gang war. He appreciated the action and announced promotions for all wounded officials besides Rs200,000 each for their treatment. He also announced Rs500,000 for the family of the deceased inspector.

Sindh Rangers PRO Major Abid Shah said that 20 Rangers personnel participated in the raid. Those wounded in the raid were admitted to PN Shifa, he added.

Police said that the raid was conducted with police mobile vans, private cars and a privately hired truck. The officials in civvies in the truck first entered the area to trap the gangsters. However, due to the leakage of information about the raid, the gangsters were prepared and had already taken positions. As the truck entered the area, it came under attack. Soon afterwards, the police reinforcement reached the spot and the gun-battle intensified.

After almost a four-hour-long exchange of fire, the police entered the house of Rehman Dakait. The adjacent houses were also in the use of gangsters from where police found a huge quantity of rockets, rifles, and ammunition.

CCPO Tariq Jamil said that the raid was conducted in camouflage as the police in civvies went to the area in a truck and private cars.

He said the impression about the gangsters roaming around in Lyari had been vanished, as the police were after them. He said the chase to catch the gangsters would continue.