SUKKUR, March 15: Three dacoits looting passengers of a Sukkur-bound bus were killed in a clash with police near Jahan Pur on Friday night.

A passenger of the bus was shot dead by the robbers after he resisted the robbery attempt. The bus was coming from Sadiqabad.

Police sources said that when the bus stopped near the Liberty Power Plant to drop some passengers, six gunmen posing as passengers boarded the bus. When the vehicle started moving again they took out guns and started robbing passengers of their valuables, including cash, jewellery and mobile phones.

Ghotki SSP Irfan Baloch said that when some passengers tried to resist, the robbers opened fire, killing one passenger and injuring two. The injured were taken to Ghotki Civil Hospital.

One of the passengers alerted the highway police by phone, who immediately arrived and surrounded the bus and asked the dacoits to surrender, but they started firing on police and they police returned fire, killing three dacoits.

The SSP said that one of the dacoits killed in the encounter was later identified as Allah Wadhayo Mirani, a resident of Ghouspur district Kandhkot-Kashmore, but names of two other criminals could not be ascertained and their bodies had been kept at the Sarhad police station.

He said that police were chasing the three dacoits who had fled, taking advantage of darkness, but would soon be arrested.

He said that patrolling of the police had been intensified at the highway to stop such incidents.