SIALKOT, May 21: Daska police chased and killed on Wednesday four “fleeing accused in two encounters”, who had attacked a police van and got two under-trial accused freed from police, Gujranwala Regional Police Officer (RPO) Zulfiqar Cheema told reporters. A constable injured in the gunfire also succumbed to his injuries on his way to a Lahore hospital.

The under-trail criminals, however, fled and police were after them.

Mr Cheema said armed people, whose exact number could not be ascertained, traveling in two cars intercepted a police van carrying Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Ijaz, near BRB Canal in Daska. They fired at the van injuring Assistant Sub-Inspector Irfan Ashraf and constables Nasir Ejaz and Mukhtar Ahmad. Nasir Ejaz, however, died while he was being taken to a Lahore hospital because of his life-threatening injuries.

Daska Saddar police brought the two accused, of Maggo Kumma-Daska, to the Daska additional district and sessions court judge, from Gujranwala Central Jail. The police were taking the accused back to the jail when it came under fire. The accused got freed Iqbal and Ejaz from police custody and fled in a car while leaving the other at the firing scene.

Police picketed roads and spotted three accused taking shelter in cornfields in Dheedowali-Sakhokey. Seeing police, the accused opened fire on police and after three-hour gunfire, the three were found dead and their bullet-ridden bodies were beyond recognition. Police seized automatic weapons form the crime scene.

Sialkot District Police Officer Capt (retd) Muhammad Ameen told reporters some other accomplices of the deceased accused had taken cover in cornfields near Korpur-Motra, Daska. Police claimed one ‘accused’ after another three-hour “encounter’.

Police put the bodies of the deceased and seized arms on display for the public at the Daska deputy superintendent of police.

Hundreds of the people visited the office to see the bodies.

Police also seized both the vehicles -- LEB-2149 and LEB-3209 -- used by the accused in the incident. Police say it seized an album of photographs from the vehicles of accused. Later, police shifted the bodies to Allama Iqbal Memorial Hospital for autopsy.

The Gujranwala RPO and the Sialkot DPO announced Rs500,000 each for the heirs to the constable.

Chief Minister Sardar Dost Muhammad Khosa and the Punjab inspector general sought a report of the ‘encounters’.