NAROWAL: A passer-by was injured in the exchange of fire between police and suspected robbers in Sialkot on Tuesday. Police arrested two of the suspects.

Munawar Hussain, a resident of tehsil Daska in Sialkot district, was going home on a motorcycle in the evening when three unidentified armed motorcyclists stopped him near Jhang Bridge.

The suspects snatched the motorcycle, a mobile phone and other valuables worth Rs60,000 from Munawar. The same suspects tried to stop a motorcyclist, later identified as Omar Daraz, in Kashmir Nagar. Instead of stopping, Omar sped away and called the police emergency.

On the call of Omar, District Police Officer Sialkot Omar Saeed Malik ordered Daska Deputy Superintendent of Police Muhammad Nawaz Sial to immediately block the road and arrest the suspects.

SHO Bambanwala Faiz Ali and Elite Force started chasing the robbers who left their motorcycles and hid in the fields. When police approached them, they opened indiscriminate fire. Police surrounded the suspects and a two-hour-long encounter started.

A passer-by, Muhammad Sufyan (35), was seriously injured in the firing. He was shifted to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Daska. Police arrested two robbers while one managed to escape in the darkness.

Police later found that the arrested suspects, identified as Ali Raza and Azmat Ali, were wanted in dozens of cases, including attempted murder and robbery.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2022