KARACHI, Aug 7: A suspected bandit and a rickshaw driver were killed in a police encounter in a Gulshan-i-Iqbal locality on Tuesday.

Police said that two suspects stole the car stereo from a parked vehicle and were trying to escape when two policemen posted at a nearby market challenged them near Mehran Plaza in Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s Block 15.

The suspects opened fire on the policemen, but a rickshaw driver, identified as Zaivar Khan, 55, was hit, said Aziz Bhatti DSP Nasir Lodhi.

The policemen returned fire wounding the two suspects, he said, adding that the police recovered two TT pistols from the possession of the suspects.

The suspects and the wounded rickshaw driver were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the rickshaw driver died during treatment. A bandit, identified as Sher Mohammad, 22, died on his way to hospital.

The area DSP said that the suspects were residents of Jamali Goth located off the Superhighway and appeared to be Afghans.

The deceased rickshaw driver was a resident of Umar Farooq Colony in Nazimabad.

Pakistan People’s

Party leader Sohail Abdi claimed that the victim rickshaw driver was a party activist.—Staff Reporter