KARACHI: Four alleged robbers, including a former policeman, were shot dead in an “encounter” in Clifton in the early hours of Sunday morning, police said.

They added that the suspects were “habitual criminals”, who had been involved in the killing of a former Special Services Group (SSG) officer during a robbery in Defence.

DIG-South Syed Asad Raza, police and Counter-Terrorism Department’s intelligence wing jointly carried out the action in which four “bank dacoits” were wounded during the exchange of gunfire at a snap checking post on a service road at a Nulla (drain) in Block-9 of Clifton.

The injured suspects were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where they were pronounced dead on arrival.

DIG says suspects had recently killed a retired SSG man over resistance in Defence

Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told Dawn that all four men had sustained bullet injuries to their torso.

They were identified as Abdul Sattar, Seri Chand, Raj Kumar and Nawab Ahmed. The police recovered four pistols along with bullets and two motorcycles from them.

The recovered bikes had been stolen from Clifton.

The DIG said that there were 14 criminal cases against Raj Kumar in Karachi and Dadu district. He had been arrested by Dadu police twice in criminal cases in 2015. Similarly, there were 13 criminal cases mostly in Clifton against Sri Chand and one in Larkana as well. He had been arrested by Larkana police in 2020.

He said there were 27 cases against Nawab Ahmed in Karachi and other parts of Sindh. He had been arrested 15 times in Hyderabad, Sanghar and Dadu between 2013 and 2020.

There were 15 cases against Abdul Sattar mostly in Karachi and he had been arrested here three times between 2019 and 2021.

The DIG said the suspects had shot dead former SSG commando Mohammed Saeed who was a security guard of a private company over resistance on Nov 6 in Tauheed Commercial Area, Phase-V.

The company official, Daniya, had drawn Rs564,000 from a bank when the robbers attempted to snatch cash from them.

He said that during investigation, it transpired that the four suspects had also shot dead two traders — Mohammed Asif Balwani in Defence on June 5, 2024 and Veer Band, 43, in Clifton on January 12, 2022.

In the latter’s case, they had also snatched cash from the victim trader when he came out from a private bank in Clifton.

Meanwhile, Clifton SP Majida Halepota told the media that one of the killed suspects was a former policeman in Shikarpur district.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2024