THATTA, Sept 4: The Thatta police in coordination with the Hyderabad police claimed to have killed two dacoits following a two-hour ‘encounter’ with dacoits in the Moulchand forest, near Bannu town, on late Tuesday night.

The name of one of the dacoits was ascertained as Ghulam Nabi Panhwar alias Fauji, while that of the other could not be ascertained.

The DPO, Thatta, Nadir Khoso, and the DPO, Hyderabad, A.D. Khwaja, led the police force and succeeded in getting a feudal lord, Amoon Katiyar, and his friend released from the clutches of the dacoits.

Both had been kidnapped from the Tando Mohammad Khan road by dacoit Ali Khoso and his gang on Tuesday morning.

Police sources said it had cordoned off all the exit and entry points to the Moulchand forest to arrest the remaining dacoits.

Ali Khoso’s gang is said to have been involved in the abduction of surgeon Hussain Leghari, and the president, District Merchants Association (Thatta), Majeed Memon, among others.

Our Correspondent from Hyderabad adds: Haji Amoon Katiyar and his friend, Haji Hussain Bux Sathio, were kidnapped by a group of six armed dacoits from the limits of the Bulri Shah Karim police station on Tuesday morning.

They were returning from their farms when they were kidnapped by the dacoits.

The district police, led by the DPO, Hyderabad, chased the dacoits in the Bulri Shah Karim area. The dacoits fled towards Thatta District.

A Bannu police official of Thatta District said that the police was finally able to surround them in the agricultural land of one Ameen Dhamach, and added that the police managed to recover the hostages from the clutches of the dacoits.

He claimed that two dacoits had been killed in the encounter and their bodies were lying in the fields.

However, their bodies had not been found till the filing of this report on Wednesday night.