KARACHI: Police on Thursday claimed that the two suspects killed in an “encounter” the previous night were habitual criminals involved in a series of house robberies during which they also committed gang-rape. They were traced out with the help of technology, the police said.

The killed suspects were identified as Pir Bakhsh and Mohammad Javed.

According to SHO Haji Sanaullah of the Surjani police station, they had recently gang-raped a teenage girl during a house robbery in Surjani Town and a hunt was on for their arrest. He said that upon receiving information that the suspects were on their way to meet their accomplices in Surjani Town, a police party was deployed in the ‘katcha raasta” in Sector 15/16, off Northern Bypass, on Wednesday night. When the police signaled them to stop, they resorted to firing on police mobile van. During the retaliatory fire, the suspects abandoned their motorbike and fled towards the nearby hilly area. They were chased and arrested in injured condition but died while being taken to a hospital, the police officer said.

The police seized two pistols, one mobile phone set and a motorbike from them and shifted the bodies to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

The SHO said that the suspects were involved in the Feb 13 gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl during a house robbery in Sector-7 of Surjani Town. An investigation into the incident was started and they were traced with the help of modern technology, he said.

“We gathered information that the suspects used to commit house robberies and subject teenage girls to gang-rape at gunpoint,” he said, adding that they had already committed 15 such house robberies and raped girls inside.

SHO Sanaullah said that the Bilal Colony SHO, Nawaz Brohi, after seeing the suspects’ photos, revealed that the same suspects were involved in a similar offence committed in his area.

Meanwhile, a West police spokesperson in a statement said that the killed suspects had snatched a motorbike from a citizen, Faisal, within the limits of the Bilal Colony police station on Feb 13 at gunpoint and the two-wheeler was the same which was seized from the suspects. They could be identified through the CCTV footage of the bike-snatching incident. “Pir Bux had been involved in many cases of heinous crime and also jailed in the past.”

There were at least nine criminal cases registered against him at the Taimuria, Samanabad, North Nazimabad, Site Superhighway Industrial Area, Mobina Town and Gulistan-i-Jauhar police stations, the statement said, adding that these offences had been committed between 2019 and 2021.

Additional IGP Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon has announced a Rs500,000 cash reward with appreciation certificate for the West SSP, Suhai Aziz, and her team, said the statement.

In-laws kill man over family dispute

A young man was shot dead allegedly by his in-laws over family dispute in Gulshan-i-Maymar on Thursday, according to police.

They said that Syed Mohammed Adnan, 32, was shot and killed at sector Y-4 near a school who went to his in-laws’ home to pacify his wife who left him after some differences. Victim’s wife refused to go along with him, and after heated arguments, the suspects opened fire. One of the bullets hit the victim on his leach, which proved fatal.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2022