KARACHI: Police claimed to have killed two “notorious and wanted carjackers” in an alleged encounter in the Manghopir area on Tuesday.

An official of the Anti-Vehicles Lifting Cell (AVLC) said that a police team on a tip-off raided a hideout where some five members of a notorious gang were present.

The personnel of the law-enforcement agency cordoned off the area, but the armed men inside the house started firing at the policemen who were busy taking positions, he said.

“The attack led to retaliation from our side, which triggered an exchange of gunfire,” said the official. “The firing left two of them dead on the spot while the others ran away under the cover of heavy firing.”

The bodies were shifted to the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities. The deceased were identified as Saleem Brohi and Wajid Mahar.

The official said Brohi’s gang was involved in snatching vehicles from people, including a Turkish diplomat in November 2021 from Naushahro Feroze.

He said the gang was actively involved in car snatchings from the rural areas of Sindh and even from highways.

They often visited Karachi for making deals with their partners, he said and added that the police had also found out about other criminal outfits connected with the gang.

“They are not directly involved in vehicles’ snatching, but they are facilitators in trade of snatched and stolen vehicles,” he said.

With recent rise in street crime that claimed lives of some six people for resisting the armed mugging attempts, the city police were found more aggressive in chasing suspects and engaging them in ‘encounters’.

Apart from killing of the suspected carjackers, the city police on Tuesday also arrested four suspected bandits after a shoot-out which left three of them injured.

Young man, mother wounded upon resistance

The fresh approach of the police had yet to become a deterrence for the bandits who struck again in Federal B. Area, leaving a woman in her ‘50s and her young son wounded for resisting an armed mugging attempt.

An official at the Yousuf Plaza police station said that 53-year-old Noor Saba with her 22-year-old son Muzammil Hussain were walking home after visiting a nearby market for groceries.

As the two reached close to their home in Block-16, they were intercepted by four armed men on two motorbikes.

“As the bandits were returning after snatching cash and valuables from the two, the young man tried to challenge one of the riders who shot at and wounded them.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2022