KASUR/MULTAN- Three dacoits were killed allegedly in two shootouts occurred in different areas on Saturday.
In Kasur, two dacoits were killed and two villagers sustained gunshot wounds in a shootout with police in Phoolnagar area. Muhammad Sharif along with his cousin Muhammad Aslam was on the way back home on a motorbike after watering fields. As they reached their village, three dacoits appeared from the nearby fields and deprived them of Rs3,500, cellphone and motorcycle. Following the incident, Aslam called in friends and gave the fleeing dacoits a chase on their bikes. When they reached close to the dacoits, they started firing on them and injured Yasir and Idrees. In the meantime, a police team also reached the site at which the culprits holed up in maize fields and started indiscriminate firing. The police retaliated and the crossfire continued for quite some time. As the firing subsided, the police personnel searched the fields and found a dacoit dead and another critically injured. They immediately rushed the injured dacoit hospital where he died.
In Multan, the police killed a proclaimed offender, carrying Rs2 million as head money and arrested two others after a shootout in Shujabad, a suburban town of Multan. The police also recovered a rocket launcher, 18 rockets, eight hand grenades, three Kalashnikovs, 867 bullets and other arms on Saturday, police sources disclosed.
The killed dacoit was identified as Shafiq alias Shafiqa, member of an inter-provincial gang, who was wanted in 18 murder cases, killing of three cops in Vehari and many other heinous crimes. The other arrested outlaws included Bashira Pahore and Asad Ullah Jhangvi while the ringleader Manoo Langah managed to escape along with two other gangsters.
DSP Khawar Zaman Lodhi said that a joint team of Saddr and City Shujabad police carried out the joint action on a tip-off. “As soon as the police party encircled the outlaws, they opened fire on cops and Shaifq got killed in crossfire,” he added.