KARACHI: Two armed robbers, including one out on bail in a murder case only recently, were fleeing after snatching money and valuables from a man when they were challenged and killed by police in an encounter in Clifton on Monday, officials said.

According to the Boat Basin police, the two suspects riding a motorbike snatched a bag containing money and other valuables from a man at gunpoint shortly after he had come out of the office of a money changer in Sassi Arcade, in Block 7.

Clifton SP Abtadit Nisar said that as they were fleeing on a motorbike, the police deployed at a nearby picket challenged them. But the motorcyclists opened fire in their bid to flee, he said. In retaliatory fire, both the suspects were wounded and arrested, he added.

The police claimed to have recovered the bag and seized the motorbike and weapons from their possession.

They were rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival, the officer said.

One of them was later identified as Shoaib, a resident of Kharadar, allegedly involved in a dozen of heinous crime cases, said Clifton SP.

The officer explained that Shoaib had been arrested last year for murder during an armed robbery in the Boat Basin area. He was indicted and sent to prison from where he was released on bail just two months ago, SP Nisar said.

Three shot dead across city

Three people were gunned down in parts of the city on Monday, police said.

They said in the SITE area a man was shot dead and a passerby wounded.

Two assailants riding a motorbike targeted Sajid, 52, as soon as he came out from an eatery in Pathan Colony. The bullets also hit a passer-by, Pervez. The wounded were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced Sajid dead.

The victim, a resident of the same area was working with a pharmaceutical company, said SITE-A SHO Rana Khushi.

The motive for the killing could not be ascertained immediately. A young man was shot dead in an Orangi Town area on Monday.

Police said Salahuddin, 35, was returning home from a mosque after offering Fajr prayer when armed motorcyclists intercepted him, opened fire and rode away.

He was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors declared him dead.

The victim was currently unemployed. He had no known affiliation with any political or religious group, claimed Pakistan Bazaar SHO Nasir Mehmood.

The motive for the murder could not be ascertained immediately. A man was shot dead in Korangi-4 late on Sunday night, police said.

They added that some men barged into the house of Yasin Salahuddin and fired at him when he was asleep and fled.

The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

The police suspected some personal enmity as a likely motive for the murder.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2014