KARACHI, June 28: A suspected gangster was killed and his four accomplices were arrested during ‘an hours-long shootout’ with police on Thursday in Dalmia where the law enforcers launched a ‘search operation’ after the Wednesday grenade attack on two police vans that had left a woman dead and a dozen others wounded, officials said.

The officials claimed that the police killed Moosa Baloch alias Shaka during a shootout in the Hindu Para area of Dalmia, as they managed to enter the ‘crime-infested’ neighbourhood after the unsuccessful attempt the previous day.

Intense firing suspended life in the thickly-populated area and instil fear into residents.

“The firing lasted three to four hours,” said Aziz Bhatti SHO Inspector Aziz Baig. “After guns from the two sides fell silent, we found one of the armed men, who was later identified as notorious gangster Moosa Baloch alias Shaka, dead,” he added.

The inspector said the deceased was wanted in 70 criminal cases ranging from money extortion to kidnap for ransom and armed robberies to murder. Originally a resident of the Jehanabad locality of Lyari, Moosa had been operating from Dalmia for the past many years, said the officer.

On Wednesday, a 40-year-old woman was killed and a dozen others, including policemen and children, sustained wounds when two police vans entering a street of Mujahid Colony, Dalmia, came under a hand grenade attack. The police acted on the information about a hideout of some gangsters in the area, but failed to arrest anyone.

The Thursday raid in which more than 100 policemen associated with different police stations of the town and Rapid Response Force took part, officials said, was a feather in their cap, yet the area could not be declared ‘clear’ as they believed the well-entrenched ‘gangsters’ could remerge in the neighbourhood.

“We have seized four pistols and two hand grenades during the search operation,” said Inspector Baig.

He added: “Among the four suspects arrested in the area is Sohail alias Mullah, who was also wanted by police in a number of criminal cases and a known member of a Lyari gang.”

He said seven pickets, manned by armed police round the clock, had been set up at the entry and exit of the affected areas.