One policeman was martyred while two were injured during an anti-bandit operation carried out in the riverine areas of Sindh, according to a statement from the Rangers spokesperson on Thursday.

Organised criminal gangs have been active in the riverine border areas of southern Sindh and central Punjab for decades, often making money through kidnap-for-ransom assaults. The military had launched a full-scale operation against criminal gangs in Sindh in the early 1990s but they resurfaced after successive governments failed to maintain law and order in the province.

The Sindh police and Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) had decided earlier this month to intensify ongoing joint operations against bandits in the province’s riverine areas.

According to a statement issued by the Sindh Rangers spokesperson today, the bandits opened fire on the police, martyring Police Constable Lashari and injuring two others. It added that the martyr hailed from Kandhkot.

The statement added that a “most wanted bandit” was killed in retaliatory firing while two bandits escaped with injuries.

It added that the slain criminal was named in several first information reports and was the brother of another notorious bandit who had a bounty on his head from the Sindh government.

The statement said the “Rangers surrounded the area and six more suspects were detained”, adding that the targeted operation against the escaped bandits was still under way while their hideout was destroyed.

The operation came in the wake of a significant ramp up in criminal activities by riverine bandits of Sindh and Punjab.

A police van was attacked last week by bandits with rockets, resulting in the deaths of over 12 policemen and multiple injuries to others in Rahim Yar Khan.

The Sindh and Punjab governments had vowed decisive action against the outlaws in the inhospitable riverine area. On Saturday, Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar said a “massive clean-up operation” would be launched in the riverine area as soon as the flood water recedes.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Governor Kamran Tessori on Tuesday took notice of journalist Mohammed Bachal’s killing by dacoits in the katcha (riverine) area of Rounti in Sindh’s Ghotki district. Bachal, a reporter with Awaaz TV, was gunned down by unknown men in Ghotki’s Rounti area.