GUJRAT: Two hardened criminals wanted for shooting close relatives of two police officials, and committing other heinous crimes were allegedly found killed in the firing of their own accomplices during a shootout with Mandi Bahauddin police early on Tuesday.

According to a police spokesman, the Civil Lines police was tipped off about the presence of some criminals near a drain on the outskirts of Mandi Bahauddin city to receive advance money (supari) for killing a man.

He said when the police reached the spot and besieged the area, the criminals opened fire at them, which was retaliated. After the firing stopped, the police found bodies of two of the criminals, “who were shot dead in the firing of their own accomplices”.

The deceased were later identified as Rizwan alias Jani and Imran, both residents of Mandi Bahauddin, wanted by the police in connection with brutal killing of a teenage boy, who was younger brother of a policeman. The criminals had allegedly also shot at and injured the son of a senior police officer, Aamir Shaheen Gondal, head of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA), Mandi Bahauddin.

Sources said the criminals had killed the younger brother of a policeman and injured the son of an officer to avenge a previous shootout with the police.

The police also found weapons and bullets lying near the bodies of the suspects.

A case had been lodged with the Civil Lines police station under sections 302, 324, 353, 186, 148 and 149 of Pakistan Penal Code on the report of Sub Inspector Muhammad Nawaz (of the same police station) and started investigation, whereas search for the remaining three suspects was underway.

ARRESTED: Police claimed to have arrested three suspects involved in a robbery at a jewellery shop in Fatehpur locality in Daulat Nasgar police precincts, seven months ago.

A spokesman for Gujrat police said four armed robbers had looted cash, gold ornaments, and other valuables from the shop at gun point on August 13, 2022.

Police have also recovered the looted items, cash as well as the pistols used in the incident.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2023