JACOBABAD, Aug 22: Thul police station SHO Ghulam Sarwar Buriro, who was arrested along with his accomplices with 19 drums of oil stolen from a PARCO pipeline in the Mandoo Teghani village on Sunday, was released after an exchange of fire between Thul and Karampur police.

The Thul SHO and some other policemen were taking the stolen oil to an undisclosed destination on a tractor-trolley, which was intercepted by a police party led by Karampur SHO Wajid Ali.

On finding the stolen oil in the trolley, the police party arrested SHO Buriro and his accomplices and locked them up at the Karampur police station. On information that the SHO and other policemen had been arrested, Thul TPO Rauf Suhrani, along with other policemen arrived at the police station and got the arrested policemen released after an exchange of fire with the Karampur police.

Later, DPO Din Mohammad Baloch reached Karampur and suspended SHOs of Karampur and Thul. The DPO got an FIR registered against accomplices of the Thul SHO, Abdul Jabbar, Abdul Latif and Meenhoon Khan.

Our Sukkur Correspondent adds: On being contacted, the DPO confirmed that the SHOs had been suspended and demoted. He said an inquiry had been ordered into the matter and added that if policemen were found involved in oil theft, they would be taken to task.