KARACHI: A police officer was killed in an encounter on main University Road on Friday, officials said.

They said that Sub-Inspector Abdul Raheem was killed in the encounter that took place near Samama shopping mall between a police team and criminals travelling in a white Corolla.

SI Raheem was the additional SHO of the Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station, they added.

Giving details of the incident, Ferozeabad SHO Aurangzeb Khattak said that four suspects, including one in police uniform, were travelling in a car in PECHS Block-6 when the police signalled them to stop.

He said they tried to speed away and the police team chased the suspects and excha­nged fire with them. The suspects got hurt in the exchange of gunfire and windowpanes of their car were smashed due to firing.

Police recover three cars snatched by suspects to escape

The SHO said that they alerted other police stations about the fleeing suspects and near the Samama mall area the police party led by SI Raheem spotted them and signalled the car to stop. But the suspects tried to escape under the cover of gunfire. “SI Raheem suffered a bullet wound in the shoulder and embraced martyrdom,” the Ferozeabad SHO said.

He said that the suspects abandoned the white car at Munawwar Chowrangi in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and snatched a Honda Civic to flee. They later left the snatched Civic in Block-10 of Gulistan-i-Jauhar and snatched a vegetable van. They abandoned the snatched van at a railway crossing in Saudabad and disappeared there. All three vehicles were recovered by the police, he said.

Public’s help sought

Anti-Vehicle Lifting Cell SSP Sarfaraz Nawaz said the suspects snatched the Corolla from Junaid in Block-14 of Gulistan-i-Jauhar on Thursday morning. He said that as Junaid reached his home, three armed suspects held him at gunpoint and took him in the snatched car. They abandoned the owner in Block-17 and fled in the car.

The AVLC chief regretted that there was no CCTV footage available in the area where the car was hijacked on Thursday morning.

The SSP revealed that different police teams were working to ascertain the identity of the suspects and to see whether they were roaming in the snatched car to carry out another crime on Friday.

A police spokesperson said in a statement that eyewitnesses confirmed that the “criminal elements” were seriously wounded in the exchange of gunfire. The witnesses also appreciated the bravery and resolve of the slain officer and other policemen.

“Different police teams are conducting raids to arrest the fleeing suspects,” she said, asking the citizens to keep an eye on criminals as they may approach a doctor or dispenser for treatment of their wounds.

“It is imperative to eliminate these criminals for the sake of peace in Karachi, therefore, the citizens should help the police to trace and bring them to justice,” she added.

Meanwhile, the body of the slain police officer was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2020