HYDERABAD: Four suspected gangsters were gunned down in an encounter with a joint team of Hyderabad and Jamshoro police on Friday.

The suspects were fleeing towards the gang-infested riverine area after snatching two vehicles and opening fire on the occupants of one of the cars in Karachi’s Sachal area. The firing left a 17-year-old youth, Adnan Magsi, dead and his brother, Anees, wounded.

According to the details shared by DIG Tariq Razzak Dharejo and SSP Adeel Hussain Chandio of Hyderabad and Sohrab Goth DSP Aurangzeb Khattak, the suspects belonged to a katcha (riverine) area-based gang of dacoits led by Hyderu Mahar, who was among the four suspects gunned down by police.

The senior police officers said the suspects had first snatched a black Revo from the young man — later identified as Adnan Magsi — from near his house within the limits of the Sachal police station in Karachi. Adnan along with his father and brother chased the suspects, who got panicked and opened fire on them killing Adnan and wounding his brother.

Gangsters killed 17-year-old youth in Karachi while being chased; they snatched another vehicle while fleeing towards Hyderabad via Superhighway; Hyderabad-Jamshoro police team engaged them in a shootout in riverine area

The suspects then headed for the toll plaza along M9. While fleeing, they snatched another vehicle from its occupant, Faizan, near Bengali Morr in Gulshan-i-Maymar within the limits of the SITE Superhighway police station.

According to Faizan, a resident of New Karachi, the suspects replaced the registration number plate of his car (BQR-209) with a fake one (BRY 021).

DIG Dharejo told Dawn the suspects made Faizan to sit with them in his car and drove towards Hyderabad but on the way they dropped Faizan at a desolate place. The DIG said that they changed the registration number plate to avoid detection of the vehicle through S4 (Sindh Smart Surveillance System) of police active along highways.

In his video message, Faizan recognised two of the dead dacoits, Hydero Mahar and Rehman Punjabi. The identity of two other killed dacoits was yet to be ascertained.

SSP Adeel Chandio said that he, after receiving information about the carjacking and murder in Karachi, tasked SHOs Naik Mohammad, Waheed Shaikh and Farooq Rahupoto posted in Jamshoro district with prompt action to apprehend the fleeing suspects. The SHOs acted in coordination with Jamshoro SSP Zafar Siddique Changa, who engaged SHO Saj­jad Jamali and his team as well. SSP Chandio revealed that the suspects used police caps while snatching Faizan’s vehicle.

According to DIG Dharejo, when the suspects reached Ishaq Khoso Goth, situated along M9, and saw policemen present there, they abandoned Faizan’s car and fled towards the riverine area, where they were engaged by police in a shootout. “Policemen on motorbike were deployed in the riverine area and during the encounter, the four suspects were killed,” the DIG said. None from the police party was killed or wounded, he added.

The gang was earlier headed by Farooq Ahmed alias Umer Shaikh, who was killed by a team of Hyderabad police in April this year within the limits of the Fort police station. Later, his son, Hydero Mahar, took over the gang.

Shaikh’s other son, Rafiq, was killed near Ghauspur in Kandhkot-Kashmore district when a Hyderabad police team comprising DSP Iftikhar Buriro and SHO Naik Mohammad Khoso raided his house to arrest him.

SSP Adeel said that he and his team had been working on busting Hydero Mahar’s gang ever since Shaikh was killed in an encounter.

DSP Khattak told Dawn that the suspects had opened fire on Adnan and his brother when they resisted their attempt to snatch the vehicle. He said that the two brothers were taken to a hospital where Adnan was pronounced dead on arrival. His elder brother, Anees, was admitted for treatment, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2025