CHAKWAL: Police managed to arrest three suspects after a shootout with hardcore criminals during which a police commando lost his life and two proclaimed offenders were killed.

The encounter occurred on Wednesday morning after police were tipped off about a gang of criminals residing in a solitary house located in a jungle near Bhoun village.

Police commando Tahir Raza was martyred while two proclaimed offenders - Saqlain Abbas and Mohammad Ehsan - were killed. Three other accused identified as Mohammad Rehman, Mohammad Sohaib and Zaffar Iqbal were arrested while four others managed to escape.

Police commando Tahir Raza popularly known as Bawa Tahir Shah was considered a “master commando” in the Elite Force of Chakwal police.

“He was the one who would guide the force about any major raid,” District Police Officer (DPO) retired Capt Wahid Mehmood said, terming his death a huge loss to Chakwal police.

“We came to know that the accused wanted in recent murder incidents in the areas of Kallar Kahar and Dohman police stations were hiding there,” a police official told Dawn.

The DPO constituted a raiding squad headed by Inspector Syed Ali Abbas and Inspector Baddar Munir, both station house officers of Dohman and Kallar Kahar police stations. As the police party reached the site, the gangsters opened indiscriminate fire, and during the shootout Commando Tahir Raza sustained critical bullet injuries and expired moments later.

He was rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

“The two criminals were living with fake identity cards. But during preliminary investigation it was established that both were actually hired assassins and robbers who were booked in as many as 20 cases registered in Mandi Bahauddin, Sargodha, Gujranwala and Faisalabad,” DPO Wahid Mehmood told Dawn.

He further said they were the same criminals who shot dead police constable Mohsin Abbas in Miani town of Sargodha on March 10 this year.

“We are conducting raids to trace other members of the gang who would be nabbed soon,” DPO Mehmood said.

The martyred commando was laid to rest in his native village Karsal on Thursday night. His funeral prayer was also held in Police Lines which was attended by Regional Police Officer Babar Sarfraz Alpa, Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Engineer Amir Khattak, DPO Wahid Mehmood, MPAs Chaudhry Mohammad Sultan Haider and Malik Falak Sher Awan besides a large number of police personnel.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2024