BAHAWALPUR: Vehari district police claimed that two alleged hardened criminals were killed in firing by their own accomplices during separate ‘encounters’.

A district police spokesperson says that a suspect, Salim, was being taken by Vehari Saddar police for the recovery of some looted valuables when they were allegedly attacked by four accomplices of Salim.

He says the police returned the fire, and during the shootout, Salim was killed allegedly in the firing of his own accomplices.

He says the attackers managed to flee, adding that a case was registered against them and police are tracking them for their arrest.

He claimed the suspect was involved in 29 cases, including those of murder, dacoity and robbery, registered against him in Luddan, Machiwal and Lahore. He was also a proclaimed offender in a case.

Vehari Saddar SHO Hassan Aftab Kiani got shifted the body to Vehari DHQ hospital for the postmortem examination.

In another incident, the spokesperson says, police were attacked by three unidentified men when they conducted a raid in Chak 283-EB to arrest a suspect, Abdul Salam, who had allegedly abducted a girl, and had been raping her for the last 17 months.

The spokesperson says that the girl manged to escape from the hideout of her abductor and informed the police about her ordeal.

He says as a Gaggo police party conducted a raid on the suspect’s hideout on the base of the information provided by the victim girl, three unidentified men opened fire on them.

The police retaliated and during the crossfire, Abdul Salam was killed.

He claimed that Salam was a hit man and involved in 21 cases registered against him at different police stations, including Gagoo, Hinjarwal (Lahore), Sahooka, and Kalyana (Pakpattan district).

He said the suspect had allegedly shot a man dead after getting ransom for releasing his kidnapped son during the current year.

Police have registered cases against his three fleeing accomplices.

SENTENCED: The Multan additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) handed down death sentence and life term to four men in a double-murder and dacoity case, along with fine.

According to prosecution, the accused, Ghulam Shabeer, Mureed Hussain, GhulamM Mustafa and Nazir Ahmed, in 2019 committed dacoity in the house of one Imran Begat Adda Matti Tal in the limits of Allapa police station.

When they were trying to escape with the looted items, including 20 tola gold, the locals besieged them.

The accused opened fire on the locals, claiming lives of two of them, Zulfiqar Ahmed and Bashir Ahmed, while two others suffered injuries.

The ADSJ ordered that the accused would also pay Rs0.3 million to the family of each of the deceased.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2023