SHIKARPUR, Sept 30: Police arrested five members of the gang of a notorious dacoit, Bachloo Teghani, following an attack on a convoy of buses and other vehicles in which three policemen and two local activists of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) were gunned down on Shikarpur-Sukkur Road in the wee hours of on Sunday.
Police, led by the deputy inspector-general of the Larkana police, Sardar Fayyaz Ahmed Khan Laghari, and the Shikarpur SSP, Nadir Khan Khoso, took a prompt action when the dacoits attacked the convoy near Maharlaro, killing three policemen and two passengers on the spot and wounding five other passengers.
Those killed were identified as Hyderabad SRP police constable Abdul Majeed Memon, Shikarpur police head constable Ali Gul Mirani and head constable Amanullah Unnar, who was a driver of the Shikarpur police, and JUI leaders Basheer Ahmed and Mohammad Farooq, both residents of Sukkur.
The passengers, who received serious wounds, were Mohammad Israr of Sanghar, Mohammad Rafiq of Waziristan, Zaitoon Khatoon, wife of Taza Gul of Azad Band; Saghir Ahmed Noon and Mohammad Asghar of Naushahro Feroze. They were admitted to the civil hospitals of Shikarpur and Sukkur. Zaitoon was referred to a hospital in Karachi.
The dacoits, who fired indiscriminately at the vehicles and looted passengers, fled the scene.
The police chased the bandits and arrested in a raid five of them, identified as Belo Teghani, Alim Teghani, brother of another notorious dacoit, Nawab Teghani; Deedar Teghani alias Saleh Teghani and Arbi Jatoi were arrested. Two semi-automatic rifles, snatched from police, one rocket launcher with three live shells, one G-3 rifle and two Kalashnikovs and a huge quantity of ammunition from their possession. The police recovered the goods that the dacoits looted from the passengers.
According to reports, six highwaymen, hiding on both sides of the road to rob vehicles, ambushed a police van and the buses, which were coming from Shikarpur in a convoy. The police returned the fire.
The dacoits boarded the buses, looted cash and valuables from the passengers and seized two official rifles.
The Larkana DIG and the Shikarpur SSP, with a contingent of the police, chased the dacoits and cordoned off the area.
The police found the bandits sleeping in bushes near the Labano Shakh, 15km from Lakhi, and before the bandits could take positions, the police had arrested four of them. Two bandits fled the area.
Later, speaking at a hurriedly-called press conference at Lakhi-Ghulam Shah police station, the Larakan DIG and the Shikarpur SSP told newsmen that the arrested dacoits had been involved in the highway robberies, and were wanted by Shikarpur, Sukkur, Larkana, Ghotki and Jacobabad police in a number of cases.
They said that Rs500,000 each would be given to the heirs of the policeman killed in the line of duty, and the injured would get Rs100,000 each. Besides, jobs would be provided in the police department to the dependents of those killed by the bandit, they added.
They said that sub-inspector Sawali Brohi had been promoted to the rank of inspector and PC Khamiso Jaffery had been made head constable by the inspector-general of police. Other policemen, they added, who participated in the raid would also be rewarded.
KILLED: A farmer, Shamsuddin Solangi, belonging to Rajar Maschi village, near Garhi Yaseen, died and eight other people fell unconscious due to inhaling insecticide which they had been spraying on their paddy crops in Garhi Yasin Taluka on Friday.
Some of those who fell unconscious were admitted at the Taluka hospital Garhi Yasin and the others at private clinics. All are said to be out of danger.
According to doctors, the villagers had sprayed insecticide without wearing gloves.
VILLAGER DIES: Three armed dacoits killed a villager, M Rafiq Brohi, and took away his motorcycle by the Khirthar canal, near Meroo Wahi bridge, on Friday night.