KARACHI, June 12: A suspected robber was killed in an alleged armed encounter with police while the exchange of fire between the two sides also claimed the life of a 10-year-old boy and left a rickshaw driver wounded in a Korangi area on Sunday, officials said.

The deadly episode sparked a public protest in the area where residents blamed the policemen's non-professional attitude for the death of 10-year-old Qadir Bakhsh.

The child had come from Rahim Yar Khan only last week to attend a relative's wedding.The protesters blocked the roads along Gulzar Colony in Korangi. The police authorities, however, insisted that the boy was killed in the firing of the bandits that also left the rickshaw driver wounded.

“It was an action carried out by the Awami Colony police of Landhi Town, but it happened in our area,” said Korangi Town SP Usman Ghani.

The police were informed through the wireless that four armed men aboard two motorbikes were coming there after committing robberies, he said.

“Four armed men on two motorbikes were intercepted by the Awami Colony police near a check-post close to the Murtaza Chowrangi. The men opened fire at the police party and sped away to the Gulzar Colony area that falls in the Korangi Town police limits.”

The police party chased them and an exchange of fire took place in Gulzar Colony in which one of the four alleged bandits and a 10-year-old boy were killed and a rickshaw driver was wounded, he said.

“The bandit has been identified as Zahid Yousuf, a resident of Nazimabad. A bike has also been seized which was left abandoned by his three accomplices who escaped. Two TT pistols were also found on the crime-scene.”

Landhi Town SP Haseeb Baig, however, said the policemen had performed their duty and they were not at fault.

He cited an initial medical report of the wounded rickshaw driver, who, according to the report, was hit by a bullet fired from a TT pistol carried by the suspected bandits.

“But still we have requested the boy's family to get through the medico-legal process and let the findings decide whose bullet actually hit the boy that proved fatal,” he said.

“The family did not allow a post-mortem and took the body home which left no margin for investigators to trace who was behind the incident.”

He said the police had also involved some elders of the area to convince the child's family to cooperate with the authorities in the investigation.