GUJRAT, May 4: Kharian Circle police on Sunday claimed to have recovered about 1,000 bottles of liquor from a truck of bootlegger after a brief encounter on the GT Road near Bani Bangla check post.

ASP Kharian Dr Raja Abid told newsmen that police had been tipped-off about the supply of a huge quantity of liquor to Rawalpindi from Lahore through a truck (GLT-8599). The police set up four pickets at different points to intercept the vehicle. He said the truck, when signalled to stop, broke through the barricade of Saddar police near Lalamusa. At this, SHO Moazzam Ali chased the vehicle and also aired the message about its escape. The truck, he said, also broke through the barricades erected near Jandanwala and in Kharian.

The ASP said that he and SHO Moazzam kept on chasing the truck whose driver, after seeing that the police had blocked the GT Road by parking two trucks and erecting barricades, jumped from the truck near the Bani Bangla check post. The driver managed to escape while opening indiscriminate fire. He said the police also returned the fire, but to no avail. Police recovered 1,000 bottles of liquor from the truck. The absconding bootlegger was later identified as Shamsur Rehman of Rawalpindi, he added.