SUKKUR: While the provincial government is yet to launch its long-delayed operation against outlaws in riverine area, gangs of dacoits struck again killing an SHO and wounding five others, including a DSP, on Monday.

The outlaws attacked a large police contingent conducting an operation in Durrani-Mahar riverine area in Kandhkot district to free hostages.

Last month, the Sindh cabinet had decided to launch a grand operation clean-up against dacoits in riverine area of the province with the support of Pakistan Army and Rangers as well as the police of Punjab and Balochistan.

Sources in police said that the dacoits were shooting indiscriminately with sophisticated weapons and also using anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers at ill-equipped police, who were sent to the crime-infested area to free hostages from kidnappers’ gangs.

They said that SHO Abdul Latif Mirani was gunned down in the attack, while DSP Qalandar Bakhsh Soomro and Constable Mohammad Ishaq alias Bhai Meerani were wounded. Three passers-by, who could not be identified till late in the night, suffered bullet wounds and they were also caught in the fierce gunfire.

SSP says fierce gun battle under way; claims ‘eliminating’ 10 to 12 outlaws

Kashmore-Kandhkot SSP Irfan Ali Samo told reporters outside the Kandhkot Civil Hospital that he dispatched a large contingent of police drawn from 20 police stations after he received a tip-off the dacoits were shifting hostages kidnapped from Kashmore to other places.

He said that the incident took place when the contingent led by DSP Soomro neared the criminals’ hideout in the Durrani-Mahar riverine area and the heavily armed outlaws of Sabzoi, Bhayo, and Jagirani gangs attacked it.

The SSP said that more police force had been sent to the area where they had succeeded to corner the dacoits. Police had killed about 10 to 12 dacoits in their operation against notorious gangs, he claimed.

Asked if he could name the dacoits killed in the action, the SSP said since the operation was still going on police could not give the exact number of the dead and their names.

The policemen were fighting bravely against the gangs and had done them palpable damage. They would soon be able to eliminate them, he said.

People of the area said the Durrani-Mahar area had turned into a battlefield and it was reverberating with sporadic gunfire.

In November last year, the outlaws’ gangs killed a DSP, two SHOs and as many constables in an attack on a police camp in riverine area of Ghotki district.

On March 9, the cabinet had approved an amount of Rs2.7 billion for procurement of military-grade weapons for police to take on hardened criminal gangs operating in the riverine area of districts Kashmore, Shikarpur and Ghotki, but the plan has not been materialised yet.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2023