LARKANA: A gang of heavily armed criminals went on a shooting and looting spree in the main bazaar of Warah town in this district on Sunday.
A police team led by SHO of the area tried to intervene by engaging them in a shootout, which left the police officer and one of his subordinates wounded.
The gang, holding many shopkeepers and their customers hostage at gunpoint, looted a number of people and fled the area.
A strong contingent of police drawn from various police stations of the Larkana range was mobilised to chase and apprehend the gangsters.
Reports from the town said that 10 gangsters riding motorcycles and firing into the air stormed the bazaar terrorising all those present there. They then started holding shopkeepers and other people hostage and looting their cash and valuables.
They continued with the shooting and looting spree for quite some time. In the meantime, a police party on patrol led by Warah SHO Ali Hassan Mahar tried to overpower the gangsters by engaging them in a shootout. However, the gangsters targeted them with their modern weapons leaving the SHO and an ASI, Allah Waraiyo Bhangar, wounded.
Outlaws hold shopkeepers and customers at gunpoint, rob many people; SHO, ASI wounded while trying to overpower them
After escape of the gang, the freed hostages — Younis Chhutto, Asif Mangnijo, Vijay Kumar, Siraj Chandio and many others — told media that the gangsters deprived them and a number of other people of their cash, mobile phones and other belongings.
SHO Mahar and ASI Bhangar were transported to a local hospital for emergency treatment and then shifted to the Trauma Centre at the Chandka Medical College Hospital.
Larkana DIG Nasir Aftab Pathan ordered Qambar-Shahdadkot SSP Sajid Amir Sadozai to form a strong police contingent suitably equipped with weapons and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) to chase and apprehend the gangsters.
He also issued directives for proper medical treatment of the wounded police officers.
Accordingly, officers and personnel were drawn from Gaji Khuhawar, Nasirabad, Lalu Raunk, Waggan, Qambar, Miro Khan and Hamal police stations to form the contingent, led by Warah DSP Naeem Akhtar.
Soon after the incident, traders and shopkeepers of the Warah bazaar pulled down the shutters on a call for protest given by the local trade union. They took to the street and held a sit-in at Fazil Rahu Chowk, raising slogans against the worsening law and order situation in the town.
Speaking to them, local traders, political activists and social workers, including Mohammad Punhal Abbasi, Abdul Ghaffar Brohi, Riazuddin Abro, Sartaj Chandio, Irfan Manan, Zaheer Chandio, Basheer Cholyani, Niaz Haidari and Waqar Cholyani strongly criticised police for failing to control crime. One of them remarked that Warah town had now become a town similar to the kutcha area of Kandhkot-Kashmore.
Some of them deplored that several policemen hid themselves while the gangsters were on their shooting and looting spree. “This is a matter of shame,” they lamented.
They vowed to continue their shutterdown strike until the gangsters were arrested.
Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2025
