HYDERABAD, Jan 26: One of the five dacoits who were riding two motorcycles was killed in an encounter with the Khanot police on Habib Mor near the Indus Highway late on Friday.

Police had also seized one Kalashnikov rifle with eight bullets from the deceased and one abandoned motorcycle without the number plate, sources said.

SHO of the Khanot police station Ghulam Abbas Bubbar said he along with a police party was on patrol when they had signalled five persons riding two bikes to stop, but they opened fire on police.

When the police retaliated, three men riding a bike fled while one of the two riding another bike was killed, but his accomplice escaped, leaving the motorcycle. The deceased was not identified. The body was shifted to the Hyderabad branch of the Liaquat University Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

The SHO claimed that the Kalashnikov rifle belonged to one of the two police constables, Abdul Majeed Pitafi and Sahib Khan Solangi, who had been killed on Jan 19 at the Dai Danu police checkpoint within the jurisdiction of the Khanot police station in Jamshoro district. He said that no police official was wounded in the firing by dacoits and only a police mobile was hit by some bullets.