KARACHI: Three suspected gangsters were shot dead in an ‘encounter’ in Lyari after an armed attack on a local leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which triggered a search operation by law enforcement personnel in which two suspects were arrested, officials said on Thursday.

Relatives of the two killed suspects carrying their coffins protested outside the Karachi Press Club on Thursday afternoon, accusing law enforcers of a “staged encounter”.

Aqeel Rehmani, a PML-N leader and trader, was shot at and wounded critically in the Gharib Shah area in Kalakot neighbourhood late on Wednesday night.

Three other persons, including one alleged attacker, were also injured in the gun-cum-grenade attacks.

City SSP Sheeraz Nazeer told Dawn that the arrested injured suspect, Asad, had invited Aqeel Rehmani for a meeting at Gharib Shah. The purpose of their meeting was not known, he added.

Asad is a nephew of Rehman Dakait, one of Lyari’s most notorious gang kingpins, who was killed in an ‘encounter’ by the police in 2009.

When Mr Rehmani reached the place where the meeting was to be held, gunmen opened indiscriminate fire on the victim, who received six bullet wounds on different parts of his body and was hospitalised.

His relatives also resorted to firing, in which Asad was wounded while fleeing. The gangsters also threw a grenade in which another person was wounded.

SSP Nazeer recalled that this was the fifth attempt on the life of the PML-N leader in recent times. He was last attacked on March 14. Previously in a grenade attack on his home 20 people were wounded.

The officer said that through CCTV footage obtained from the previous attacks and with the help of witnesses, the police had identified the attackers.

A joint search operation was carried out by police and Rangers in which three suspects, later identified as Gul Zaib, Yasir and Rafiq, were shot dead “during an exchange of fire”.

“They were criminals linked with the Zahid Ladla-led gang,” claimed the SSP, adding that they could be seen in the March 14 attack on Mr Rehmani through CCTV footage.

He said another suspect involved in attempts on the life of the political activist had already been arrested while three other suspects were at large.

Answering a question that why the gangsters were against the PML-N leader, the City SSP said the criminals suspected that he worked as an ‘informer’ against them. However, Mr Nazeer said the injured Mr Rehmani was not in a position to give his statement to the police.

Protest against ‘encounter’

Carrying coffins of the killed suspects, Yasir and Rafiq, relatives and area people protested outside the KPC.

They claimed that they both were taken away by law enforcers from their homes, one in Eidu Lane in Lyari and the other in Mowach Goth, and later killed in a “fake” encounter.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2018