THATTA, Jan 6: Two bandits were killed, their three accomplices arrested and two others bandits arrested in two separate incidents in the district on Monday. Five bandits, hailing from Punjab, barged into the National Bank of Pakistan's Jati branch.

Making the bank staff hostage at gunpoint, the bandits collected cash amounting to Rs335,000 and fled. On receiving information, the police rushed to the site and followed the bandits to the outskirts of the coastal town.

The police traced them hiding in a sugarcane field and engaged them in an hour-long encounter. As a result, two of the bandits, Riaz and Hashim were killed, Manzoor, Javed and Ramzan, were arrested and a Kalashnikov, a repeater, two pistols, a dagger, 55 rounds of cartridge and the robbed amount were recovered.

The police said that before committing crime, the bandits had been staying at an area village in the hut of Ajmal. Meanwhile, the police arrested two other bandits,Zuhaibuddin Khushk and Ghulam Rasool Khushk, in Ghel Mori village of Ghorabari taluka, who had recently killed Hakim Ali Brohi over resisting to motorcycle snatching bid in Thatta.-BoC