Three robbers and two passers-by were killed in a shootout with the police on Wednesday shortly after the robbers robbed a cloth shop in Peoples Colony and were fleeing.
City Police Officer Haidar Ashraf said three men entered a Mubasshar Ali’s shop near Ideal Bakery on Sitiana Road. They took cash, mobile phones and other valuables.
Some of the neighbouring shopkeepers informed the police, who arrived at the scene before the robbers had left.
The police ordered the robbers to surrender, but they started firing at the police.
The police returned fire, killing two of them on the spot. Their accomplice was also injured, but they managed to flee. Two passers-by, later identified as Nazia Saeed of Batal Colony and Naeem Abbas Mohallah Sharifpur, were also shot. They were taken to Allied Hospital, where they both succumbed to their injuries.
A police team chased the robber and caught him near Chak 208-RB. He, too, was shot when he refused to stop. He died on the spot.
The CPO said the robbers were yet to be identified. He said the bodies had been sent for a post-mortem examination.
District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin Mengal said the chief minister had announced Rs500,000 for the families of the deceased passers-by. He said a government job each was also announced for a member of the bereaved family.
Two robbers killed in another encounter
Separately, two men believed to be robbers were killed in what the police said was an encounter. Mureedwala police said four of their accomplices fled the scene.
The city police officer said Mureedwala Sub Inspector Muhammad Akram received a tip about a gang of robbers, who, the SI was told, were on their way to rob a house in Mamunkanjan.
The CPO said that the police team raided the area. At around 3am, he said, SI Akram and his team spotted a suspicious-looking while car on Mamonkanjan Road near Chak 507-GB.
He said there were six men in the car.
When they were told to come out of the car for checking, the CPO said they started firing at the police and fled. They abandoned the car and went inside a sugarcane field along the road.
Police chased them and caught them half-an-hour later. The firing continued for some time before two of the robbers were killed. The rest of them fled.
The CPO said police found a 0.44 bore rifle, a Kalashnikov rifle and two magazines on the bodies. He said the deceased robbers had yet to be identified. He bodies were sent for a post-mortem examination.
He said police were looking for the four men who fled.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2013.