HYDERABAD, Nov 7: Three hostages, Sahib Ali Shah, Nisar Shaikh, and Abdul Rehman Bhurgari, who had been kidnapped by dacoits last month, were recovered by the police on Wednesday night. However, the dacoits managed to escape.

According to the TPO of Matiari, Malik Zafar Iqbal, the outlaws were shifting the hostages under the cover of darkness when the SHO of Sekhat police station, Wahid Bukhsh Leghari, who was patrolling the area, spotted them and opened fire. The dacoits retaliated.

However, the dacoits soon escaped into the Gondhi forest leaving the hostages behind.

The hostages told police they had been kidnapped by dacoits Imdad Kalhoro, Bijli Khoso, Matlo Khoso and Ghulam Qadir Pakhrio.

One of the hostages, Sahib, said that the kidnappers had demanded Rs500,000 as ransom for their release which was why his elder brother, Liaquat Shah, who too had been kidnapped, was allowed to go.

The TPO, Hatri, Zafar Iqbal, and TPO Investigation Imdad Shah said that due to shortage of police force the operation against dacoits often remained unsuccessful.

They said that the police were trying to bulldoze the hideouts of dacoits in the forests.

DPO A. D. Khwaja had constituted two teams, one led by Additional DPO Sharjeel Karim Kharal and the other by DPO Investigation Peer Fareed Jan Sirhandi, to go in search of the dacoits with the help of foot-trackers.