SUKKUR, Sept 19: A strong contingent of police from four districts and Rangers conducted raids in the Golodero area of Shikarpur district on Sunday, bulldozed several houses and picked up more than 25 people.

The raids were conducted on the basis of information that Santosh Kumar, a rice trader who had been kidnapped near Larkana some 75 days ago, had been kept in the Golodero area.

Sources said Rangers and police surrounded the entire Golodero area, searched the villages of Sher Mohammad Brohi, Qadir Bux Brohi, Malik Dad Brohi, Sher Khan Brohi and Jhandeer Brohi and picked up some 25 suspects.

Two Kalashinkov rifles were said to have been recovered from the house of Jhandeer Brohi. Police sources said the people who were picked up had been detained for interrogation.

They said some kutcha houses were bulldozed which according to them were hideouts of bandits. The sources said they had received a credible information that Mr Kumar had been in the captivity of some wanted outlaws residing in the villages. However, neither an outlaw was arrested nor Mr Kumar recovered in the raids. The sources said the outlaws had received information about the raids prior to them and left the area.

Two colonels of Rangers and the DPOs of Shikarpur and Larkana with policemen from the districts of Shikarpur, Larkana, Sukkur and Jacobabad, besides armoured personnel carriers, cranes and bulldozers took part in the raids.

KILLED: A man was killed and five others, three of them women, were injured in an armed clash in Wadi Patni village, Rohri taluka, Sukkur district, the other day.