SUKKUR: Ghotki police claimed to have killed five notorious dacoits in an encounter on the link road along the Bago wah in Qadirpur area.

SSP Ghotki Tunveer Husain Tunio said that a police patrol led by A-Section SHO Mohammad Ayoub Dogar had spotted an armed gang of dacoits the other night.

As soon as the outlaws noticed that the police were coming towards them, they opened fire on the law enforcers. In retaliation, police shot dead five suspected dacoits while their three accomplices fled.

He said the dead were identified as Ahsan alias Kajlo, s/o Sodho Chachar, and Irfan, s/o Allah Wadayo Chajjan, both residents of Mirpur Mathelo; Mohammad Sachal and Akhtiar Ali, sons of Gul Mohammad Solangi, residents of Daharki, and Ali Akbar, s/o Bagh Ali Kalhoro, resident of Garhi Yaseen, Shikarpur district.

Police recovered three pistols, one double-barrelled gun and a Kalashnikov from them, the SSP said, adding that police had cordoned off the area and mounted a search for the fugitive dacoits.

He said that those dacoits were wanted by police in as many as 36 cases of heinous crimes registered at different police stations. They were involved in kidnappings for ransom, honey-trappings, robberies, attacks on police, cash snatchings, coil and cattle thefts and several other crimes, he explained.

SSP Tunio said police were collecting further details of their criminal activities from different districts in Sindh and Punjab.

Police have registered a case of the encounter at A-Section police station and shifted the bodies to the Civil Hospital Ghotki for post-mortem examinations.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2023