MULTAN, Sept 7: A police constable's crusade to track down the culprits allegedly responsible for the death of his mother led his department to smash a gang of bandits, which also committed gang-rapes in the area.

DPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal said at a press conference on Tuesday eight dacoits stormed into Akhtar Abbas's house at Sikandarabad on May 31 last year. They held up inmates and plundered whatever they could.

The DPO said Akhtar's mother could not bear the shock and died during the strike. Shaken by the incident, Akhtar applied for a long leave to canalize all his energies towards arresting the gangsters.

The DPO said he granted the constable long leave to complete his mission. Few weeks ago, the constable turned up to the DPO office and informed him that he had succeeded in his mission. He furnished the police with valuable information about the gang, ring leader Nawaz alias Mullah and hideouts of its members.

Led by the information, Mr Gondal said the police rounded up 12 of the 24 members of the gang, including its ring leader. The other arrested members of the inter-district gang were Mumtaz alias Pathana, Nazar Husain alias Nazara, Qayyum Nawaz, Farzand Ali alias Fandi, Khalid alias Khalidi, Zakir alias Khanu, Nazakat Ali, Pervez alias Bagh Ali, Abdul Rasheed alias Saeed, Arshad and Waris. A majority of the gangsters belong to nomadic Odh tribe.

He said the arrested men had confessed to 46 incidents of dacoities, besides occasionally gang-raping women. The gangsters committed crime in the guise of Elite Force personnel. He said he had recommended promotion of Akhtar for the courage he had shown to transform his personal tragedy into a social cause.