SUKKUR: Little success has been achieved in a big operation involving several hundred police personnel drawn from four districts of Sindh supported by helicopter gunships and armoured personnel carriers and sophisticated arms, including rocket launchers, in the dacoits-infested kutcha area of Raunti in Ghotki district.
The massive offensive had been launched last week following the kidnapping of seven policemen belonging to the Rahimyar Khan post of the Punjab police by a gang of dacoits while the Sindh police were continuing a small scale operation in the kutcha area.
Take a look: Seven policemen kidnapped near Rahim Yar Khan
The Sindh police had cordoned off the kutcha area in the first week of April and sealed off all supply routes to force gangs of dacoits to lay down their weapons and surrender themselves.
However, on April 29, the ringleader of the most notorious of the gangs, Sultan alias Sulto Shar, managed to escape along with his few associates after blowing up a police vehicle in the cordon with a rocket. SHO of the Jarwar police station, Mohammed Hassan Kolachi, was killed and some of his colleagues accompanying him were wounded in the attack.
A few days later (on May 3), the seven policemen were kidnapped by a gang of 40 dacoits in a raid on the Rahimyar Khan police post. In the ensuing operation launched jointly by the Sindh and Punjab police, the kidnapped policemen were got freed.
Helicopter gunships were used in the operation to destroy the dacoits’ hideouts but there were no confirmed reports of casualties inflicted on dacoits.
Know more: SHO dies, three constables hurt in rocket attack by dacoits
On Thursday, Ghotki SSP Saqib Mehmood Sultan led a media team for a visit to the affected kutcha area.
He showed the media team the spot where, according to him, three dacoits, including Shabbir Shar, were killed while six others were wounded in an air raid on their hideouts.
He said helicopter gunships eliminated many hideouts. He could not name the wounded dacoits.
He said strong contingents of police personnel drawn from Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur and Kashmore districts along with Rangers personnel and a Punjab police team were constantly increasing pressure on criminals hiding in the vast area. He said Sulto Shar, Guddu Shar and Chotu Bakhrani were the ringleaders of the gangs operating in the Raunti area.
The SSP said that besides the land route, the river routes leading to various points of the kutcha right from Raunti to Ubauro had been sealed off to prevent the criminals from slipping away.
According to an estimate, the number of criminals hiding in the area was in hundreds and the ringleaders were operating their gangs from scores of hideouts established in Raunti.
The gangsters operate across the interior of Sindh and deep inside southern Punjab.
Meanwhile, Sukkur DIG Kamran Afzal on Thursday presided over a meeting of Sukkur, Khairpur, Ghotki, Kashmore SSPs where the Rahimyar Khan SSP was also present. The meeting decided to intensify the operation and continue it till the elimination of each and every hideout of criminals in the area.
Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2015
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