TAXILA, Oct 4: An SHO and an elite force official received bullet injuries in a shootout with proclaimed offenders, wanted in kidnapping for ransom cases, in the early hours of Thursday.

The shootout took place near the Lunda Mera village, in the jurisdiction of the Hassanabdal police station.

Talking to newsmen here, the district police officer, Tariq Haneef, said the police arrested one member of an inter- provincial gang of kidnappers, Badar Muneer, a resident of Mardan, for his alleged involvement in a kidnapping for ransom case of a young boy, Adnan, a resident of the Kot Najeeb Ullah district Haripur.

During preliminary interrogation, the accused disclosed that other members of his gang, including Nazakat and his brother, Inyat, had abducted the boy and taken him to Sakha Kot, in the Mardan district.

He further said that “a deal” with the family of the abducted boy was underway. He told the interrogators that the gang members were hiding in their house in the Lunda Mera village, Hazara Road, near Hassanabdal.

On this information, a police party, headed by Attock Saddar SHO, Inspector Syed Shoukat Shah, along with a battery of the elite force, raided the hideout, which is in the jurisdiction of the Hassanabdal police station, around 3.00am on Thursday.

On seeing the police party, the outlaws opened indiscriminate fire on them. As result, Inspector Syed Shoukat Shah and a head- constable of the elite force, Azam, received bullet injuries.

Nevertheless, the police succeeded in arresting the alleged mastermind of the gang, Nazakat. But the other four gang members, identified as Salman Khan, Walayat Khan, Zahir Khan and Zahid Khan, managed to escape by breaking the police cordon during the heavy exchange fire between the two parties.

The injured officers were brought to the POF Hospital, Wah Cantonment, for treatment and their condition was said to be stable. Two bullets were removed from Shah’s body and one from Azam’s, the head-constable. The DDO, Haneef Joya, also visited the hospital later in the day to inquire about their health.

The DPO informed that these outlaws were members of a gang of kidnappers who had abducted a number of persons for ransom from various cities. He said the gang was involved in two such cases in Wah Cantonment, two in Hassanabdal, one in Taxila and one in the Haripur area.

A case under the Anti-Terrorism Act has been registered against the accused at the Hassanabdal police station for attaching the police party and two police parties —one headed by DSP Saddar circle and the other by DSP Hassanabdal circle— have been constituted to capture the rest of the absconders.