GUJRANWALA, Jan 18: Police claimed on Sunday to have added another ‘feather to their cap’ by shooting Nannu Goraya, the hardened criminal who was apprehended a couple of days ago in a far-flung Malaysian island. The encounter, as goes the police version, also left two of Goraya’s accomplices dead, while another three made good their escape.

Carrying a bounty of Rs2 million on his head, Goraya was captured by Interpol which handed him over to the law enforcers in Gujranwala – the felon’s home district which later proved to be a haven for his criminal acts. Once he stepped in the crime world, there was no looking back for him as he organised a gang of extortionists and boasted of being branded ‘the King of desperados’.

In a rare show of a sense of achievement, the police put the bodies of Goraya and two others in the official vehicle and took round of the city, `making them a lesson for others like them’.

The police said the shootout took place near Kholowala village in the early hours. The chief accused was in the Satellite Town police custody after a court granted his six-day physical remand.

The police said SHO Tausif Ahmad, along with a team, was taking Goraya to Bhadey village to arrest his accomplices. Hardly had the official vehicle reached the village drain, they said, Goraya’s accomplices tried to stop it by barricading the passage.

The next moment, according to the police, some armed men appeared and asked them to hand over Goraya to them and started firing on the police. A Saddar police station team, headed by SHO Muhammad Iqbal Aujla, also joined the Satellite Town police and they together resorted to retaliatory firing.

The exchange of fire left Goraya, who tried to break free, and two of his ‘rescuers’ -- Tahir alias Kana (Garjakh) and Manzoor (Dandian) -- dead. Zafar Butt, Imdad Fauji and Tasawar Faqir managed to escape, said the law enforcers who claimed having recovered from the gangsters two Kalashnikovs with rounds.

DIG Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema, who is the regional police officer, announced cash prizes and commendation certificates for the officials who ‘encountered’ the proclaimed offender and his aides. The DIG described Goraya’s killing as an achievement of the police which, he said, would help close the chapter of hooliganism and heinous crime.

As the police moved from one place to another (with the bodies), people showered rose petals on the officials and also raised slogans in favour of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, IGP Shaukat Javed and other senior policemen.

Nannu Goraya (his actual name was Faiz Rasool) of Nowshera Virkan’s Bhoparan Kalan village entered the crime world 15 years ago when he murdered Zahid, a youngster who quarreled with his (Nannu’s) brother Mithu Goraya.

Henceforward, his life was one of a hardened criminal who played hide-and-seek with the law enforcers, taking shelter in Dubai and Muscat.

The police and a (local) court declared him a proclaimed offender and announced hefty head money and reached him through Interpol, handing down death to the man who robbed many people of life.