SAHIWAL, Dec 2: An hour-long encounter between Farid Town police and proclaimed offenders involved in the murder of a former union council Nazim resulted in the arrest of one of the outlaws here on Thursday.

The killers of former UC Nazim Murtaza Puppoo were present at the outhouse of another former UC Nazim Irshad Ahmed Kamboh at Chak 182/9-L. On a tip-off, the police conducted a raid and besieged the hideout of POs. Taking the position, the outlaws opened fire on the police which was returned. The crossfire continued for some one hour.

In the meanwhile, one of the POs, Ibrar Hussain, somehow made captive sub-inspector Muhammad Adil and asked him to raise the siege. At this, the law enforcers provided a safe passage of retreat to POs - Ilyas, Fayyaz, Shahbaz, Shahzad, Shuja, Maqsud, Ibrar alias Javed and former UC Nazim Irshad Ahmed Kamboh. Police, however, managed to arrest PO Ibrar Hussain and recovered from him a pistol and 25 cartridges.

The nine POs had shot dead former UC Nazim Murtaza in DHQ Hospital's surgical ward on July 9, 2002. One of the accomplices of the killers, Iftikhar, had also been killed when supporters of the deceased returned the fire.

ARRESTED: Grain Market police arrested four friends of a proclaimed offender for opening fire on a police party in Peoples Colony here on Thursday. PO Farid was celebrating his birthday at the outhouse of one of his friends, Muhammad Amin, when police on a tip-off raided there.