KARACHI, May 30: A police constable was killed when suspected bandits opened fire during checking of their car on Pir Pagaro Road on Monday, officials said.

They said that two of the four young suspects were arrested and the car, later recovered from the same area within the remit of the Bahadurabad police station, was seized.

“Two constables on a regular patrolling on a motorbike spotted a car carrying four youngsters,” said an official at the Bahadurabad police station. “They intercepted the car and asked its occupants to get off. Seconds after two of the occupants came out, one of those still sitting in the car fired at the policemen.”

Constable Taj Muhammad was hit by one of the bullets, he said, adding that the wounded policeman along with his colleague returned fire but two of the suspects escaped.

“In the meantime, the constables contacted the police station to seek help and overpowered the other two suspects. Two TT pistols were seized from them,” added the official. The wounded constable was later shifted to a private hospital on Stadium Road, where he died during treatment. The official said an initial investigation suggested that the arrested suspects were bandits. Efforts were being made for the arrest of their aides, he said.

“We are also verifying details of the seized car (ANM-215). Initial interrogations led us to the fact that the suspects who did not come out of the vehicle were professional criminals and hailed from Khairpur Mirs in Sindh,” said Inspector Mohsin Haider, SHO of the Bahadurabad police station.

Father of three, the deceased policeman was a resident of Manzoor Colony and originally hailed from Bahawalpur, he added.

Trader shot dead

A trader in his early 50s was gunned down in Lyari on Monday evening, apparently after being kidnapped.

The police remained clueless about a motive or the people behind it but suspected that the murder could be the result of the ongoing rivalry between two ethnic communities settled in the town which had claimed dozens of lives in recent months.

“The victim was identified as Yaqoob Jakoi,” said SP Javed Baloch of the Lyari Town. “He was found shot dead in Moosa Lane area within the remit of the Baghdadi police station. It seems that he was kidnapped and killed somewhere else and his body was dumped in that area later.”

An official at the Baghdadi police station, however, said the victim was said to be associated with the Kachhi Rabita Committee and was a resident of Madina Masjid Road in Baghdadi.

He was a supplier of pan and tobacco items, he added.