OKARA, Feb 5: A sub-inspector and two robbers were killed in a four-hour long encounter on Chuchak Road, some seven kilometres from here on Sunday.

Reports said that Deepalpur Sadar SI Noor Ahmed along with three persons was going to Chak 7/1-R by a car (Karachi-J6452) via Renala-Chuchak Road. For looting passersby, eight robbers had blocked the road by placing a dried tree near Chak 4/1-R. The SI stopped the car and as soon as he got down from the vehicle along with his companions, the robbers opened fire on them. As a result, the SI died on the spot while Mian Rashid, Syed Ibrar Husain and Ahmed Ali sustained serious injuries. They were rushed to hospital in critical condition.

On receiving information, DPO Malik Tahir Mehmood along with a heavy police contingent rushed to the spot and chased the culprits. Seeing police, the criminals took refuge in sugar cane fields and started firing on police which was returned. When the firing from the side of outlaws ceased after about four hours, the police found two bodies of outlaws on the spot while their accomplices managed to escape. They dead outlaws were identified as Nawazish Ali alias Mazhari and Maqsood Ahmed alias Maqsoodi.

The police sent the bodies to the Okara DHQ Hospital for post mortem.

Later on, scores of people, including the DPO and police officials, offered funeral prayers of SI Noor Ahmad at Manzoor Shaheed Police Lines, district courts complex.