RAWALPINDI: A suspected robber who along with his two accomplices robbed a female university student, hijacked a car and then escaped after injuring a policeman on Tuesday morning was shot dead during what the police claimed to be an encounter in the evening.

Police said the gunmen riding a motorcycle intercepted three female students of the Arid Agriculture University on Double Road.

The robbers snatched a laptop from one of the students and tried to escape towards Islamabad.

However, on I.J. Principal Road, their bike broke down after which they stopped a car at gunpoint and forced the driver to take them towards Faizabad.

One of the labourers working on the metro bus project on Ninth Avenue saw the robbers hijacking the Honda car along with its driver and heading towards Faizabad.

The labourer rushed towards the Faizabad checkpost manned by the Rawalpindi and Islamabad police on his motorcycle and informed them about the robbers and the registration number of the hijacked car.

The policemen took position and within minutes the hijacked car reached the picket. When the officials signaled the car to stop, the robbers opened fire injuring one of the policemen.

In the meantime, the owner of the car and the three robbers ran towards the Faizabad bus terminal on foot leaving the car behind.

Sources in the police told Dawn that the suspect, who the police claimed was killed in the encounter in the evening, had been arrested by the Rawalpindi police after he shot and injured the policeman at the Faizabad checkpost. However, his two accomplices escaped.

The incident exposed the joint efforts of the capital and Rawalpindi police being made on the direction of the interior minister to control crime through joint patrolling and picketing in and around I.J. Principal Road.

City Police Officer (CPO) Humayun Bashir Tarar said the police had been hunting for the gang of robbers since morning. In the evening, he added, they again snatched a motorcycle near Pindora after which the police chased and caught them.

The CPO claimed that one of the robbers was injured during a shoot-out with the police and later died while being taken to hospital. The police are hunting for the two accomplices of the robber, he added.

“It is a good work done by the police,” CPO Tarar said and denied that there was any foul play in the encounter.

After the suspected robber was killed in the evening, SP CIA Islamabad Jamil Hashmi was called to the Holy Family Hospital to identify the suspect.

“Yes, he was the one who opened fire on the joint police picket and injured a policeman,” SP Hashmi said.

Police said the university student and the owner of the hijacked car were also called to the hospital to identify the man.

The injured constable Safdar Zaman was stated to be out of danger.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2014