RAHIM YAR KHAN: Ten people, including farm workers, gangsters and police, were killed when Katcha area outlaws attacked a sugarcane field where harvesting was going on in Machka police limits, some 90km from here, early Wednesday morning.

Reports said some workers of Machi clan were busy in cane harvesting when dacoits started indiscriminate firing that killed four of the workers and a passerby girl.

According to another report, workers of local Solangi clan were busy in a field between Machka and Daulatabad when dacoits of Kosh and Shar gangs opened fire on them to avenge the killing of their accomplices by police a few months ago.

But district police spokesperson Saif Ali Wains claimed in his WhatsApp message that the fight was actually between Machi and Shar tribes who traded heavy shells. He said a police contingent led by District Police Officer Rizwan Umar Gondal reached there.

Two policemen, four outlaws, three farm workers and a passerby girl among the dead

Wains said the reason was an old enmity between the two tribes. He said the crossfire left three persons of Machi tribe and a woman of Seelra clan dead.

Meanwhile, Wains said four dacoits Rehamdil Shar, Aleenoo Shar, Umar Kosh and Karmoon Kosh were killed while constables Muhammad Qasim and Jam Irshaad embraced martyrdom during a crossfire. He said four policemen — Asif, Abdul Razzaq, Imran and Muhammad Sarwar — were injured.

Police recovered rocket launchers also. He said dacoits also used rocket launchers and heavy ammunition but police retaliated strongly.

The injured policemen were shifted to Shaikh Zayed Medical College Hospital.

According to some unconfirmed information by local people, the encounter between dacoits of Shar and Kosh dacoits and police was in progress till Wednesday evening. They said more than 20 dacoits were in hiding in sugarcane fields.

IGP: A handout issued by the IGP office said two bandits — Rano Shar and Ghulam Muhammad — were also injured.

It said Additional IGP Maqsoodul Hasan and Bahawalpur RPO Rai Babar Saeed also reached the spot.

IGP Dr Usman Anwar paid tribute to the martyred policemen and said the brave policemen had sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.

AREA: Katcha area along the river Indus, falling in Rahim Yar Khan and Rajanpur districts in Punjab and Ghotki and Kashmor districts in Sindh, has long been the hideout of armed gangsters who kidnap people through different traps and extort ransom.

Punjab and Sindh police had carried out a number of operations in the past but the outlaws resurface after a few months.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2023