SUKKUR: Two more persons, including in-charge of an anti-polio team, were kidnapped by dacoits in separate incidents in Shikarpur district on Sunday.

According to police, the anti-polio team in-charge, Khalid Bhayo, was taken away at gun point while he was on his way back home, located in Anwar Badani village.

The gang of dacoits caught him in Rustam town, near the district’s riverine area, falling within the jurisdiction of the Kot Shahu police station. Bhayo heads the team that has been assigned the anti-polio vaccination in the Sewani union council areas.

According to the police, the kidnappers used Bhayo’s mobile phone to contact his family and inform them that he was in their custody. They told the family that he would be released only after some members of the gang recently arrested by the police were set free.

Separately, a resident of Mehmoodabad, Wakeel Unnar, was kidnapped by dacoits in a locality of Shikarpur on Sunday.

The area police said that they had mounted a search for the outlaws and for the recovery of the hostage.

In Pannu Aqil taluka of Sukkur district, a gang of dacoits intercepted a mini-truck at a section of the Sukkur-Multan Motorway and abducted its driver, Lal Bakhsh, but his two companions managed to escape by jumping off the moving vehicle. They narrated the incident to the police.

They said the heavily armed gang held the driver at gun point and ordered him to follow their instructions. “While the vehicle was moving into the riverine area, we found an opportunity to jump off the vehicle and ran to safety,” they said, and informed the police about the direction to which the mini-truck was moved.

The police cordoned off the area and started a search operation.

Two hostages recovered

Meanwhile, the Sukkur police on Sunday claimed to have recovered two hostages after an encounter with their kidnappers in the Shah Belo area.

They said the police had received a tip-off that the kidnapers were shifting the hostages, Mohammad Ramzan Khoso and Mohammad Iqbal Khoso, from their hideout in the SITE area to Phetho Patan area.

A police team rushed to a specific point and challenged the outlaws which led to an exchange of fire, they added.

The dacoits retreated and abandoned the hostages during the encounter, they said.

The victims had remained in dacoits’ captivity for about a month, the SHO of the Qadirpur police station told the media.

He said the outlaws managed to flee under the cover of heavy firing but police were chasing them deep into the riverine area.

The freed victims would be handed over to their families after legal formalities, he said.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2024