KARACHI, Sept 22 An early morning police raid on a house in Landhi on Wednesday turned into a deadly gunbattle between the police and an alleged gangster that claimed the lives of two constables and finally ended with the death of the lone armed man who kept engaged nearly a dozen personnel of law-enforcement agencies for two hours, officials and witnesses said.

The fierce gunfire from both ends in Majeed Colony's Sector-1 spread panic in the congested low-income neighbourhood, where a large number of people came out of their houses and crowded the narrow alleyways, allowing the lone gunman to move from house to house with the police party chasing him.

The officials said the police action came when they decided to move on a tip-off from one of the arrested suspects who led the raiding party to a house in Sector-1, where his aide and the man wanted in more than a dozen cases of murder, attempt to murder and robberies was staying for a night.

“It is an organised gang of criminals. They killed one of our constables, Muhammad Maroof, in an encounter on Sept 3 before snatching his official gun,” said Tanvir Alam Odho, the SP of Bin Qasim Town.

Members of the raiding party said that they did not expect such a resistance from the alleged gangster, who was later identified as Tariq Noor.

They suspected the information about the police action had been leaked out to him before they reached the spot.

“We moved into a narrow street on foot after knowing that the wanted man was staying on the first floor of a house,” said the area's supervisory police officer (SPO), DSP Abdul Jabbar Qhaimkhani.

“As one of our constables, Faiz Rasool, was going upstairs, Tariq opened fire on him. The policeman was hit with two bullets, one in the chest and the other in the head, and died on the spot which allowed Tariq to jump out in the street and run away.”

The police chased him and in another exchange of gunfire in the middle of the street another constable, Ajab Khan, sustained fatal bullet wounds, the police officer said.

Both the deceased constables, 42-year-old Faiz Rasool and 35-year-old Ajab Khan, were associated with the investigation section of the Sukkun police station.

“Finally Tariq stormed into a house in the area and held the family at gunpoint. He wanted a safe passage to flee by putting lives of the family in danger. But we tried to trap him while negotiating with him,” said DSP Qhaimkhani.

The area people said the bandit armed with an SMG (submachine gun) and a pistol kept on firing for at least an hour while holding up in the house and also attacked the police party as he came out after sunrise.

“In the final face-off, our two constables sustained serious bullet wounds. The injured constables, Faiz Ahmed and Muhammad Shabbir, however, retaliated and shot dead Tariq Noor,” added DSP Qhaimkhani.

The police officials saw no lack of planning and negligence on the part of the raiding party in the action that claimed lives of two constables and wounded two others while the police were challenged by a single armed man.

They said the gangster was a hardened criminal and had a history of such deadly encounters with police.

“Even in the last encounter he killed a constable and snatched his SMG, which was recovered in Wednesday's encounter along with a pistol,” said SP Odho of the Bin Qasim Town.

He said the police faced serious problems in returning fire at the gangster because it was a densely populated locality and frequent gunshots attracted a large number of people outside their homes.

“Lives of the area people would be in danger if the police had not taken extra care,” he added.

The dead constable, Faiz Rasool, had six children and Ajab Khan left a widow and four children.

The funeral prayers of the two slain policemen were offered at the Malir police headquarters, which were attended by Inspector-General Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak and CCPO Fayyaz Leghari.

The IG announced posthumous promotions for the two police constables to the higher grades and Rs2 million each as compensation to their families.