SHIKARPUR: Two police officers were killed and three others suffered serious injuries in an encounter with armed criminals in the katcha area near Chak in the remit of Bachal Bahyo police station on Sunday morning.

According to reports, after receiving information about the presence of Muneer Misrani Jatoi and Nasroo Qadrani Jatoi and other notorious dacoits in the katcha area, a police contingent reached there. On seeing the police party heading towards their hideouts, the dacoits started firing on policemen who also returned fire.

In exchange of fire, Station House Officer of Lakhi police Murtaza Mirani and ASI Zulfiqar

Ali Panhwar were martyred, while three other policemen received serious injuries.

The deceased were taken to Taluka Hospital Lakhi Ghulam Shah for completing medico-legal formalities. Later their bodies were handed over to their heirs.

The body of SHO Murtaza Mirani was sent to Khairpur and that of ASI Zulfiqar Panhwar to Mehmoodabagh village for burial.

Larkana DIG Irfan Balouch and Shikarpur SSP Sajid Ameer Saddozai rushed to the place of incident and vowed to launch a bigger operation against the criminals.

Meanwhile, Sindh IGP Syed Kaleem Imam expressed grief over the loss of two police officers. The provincial police chief announced compensation for the families of the deceased officers.

IGP Imam ordered the Larkana DIG to submit a report about the incident mentioning the reasons for failure of the police operation.

No FIR had been registered about the incident till the filing of this report.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2019