Sukkur: Police launches crackdown against bandits in Shah Belo

SUKKUR: A gun battle is raging between the Sukkur police and a gang of bandits in Shah Belo forest here during a police crackdown, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The personnel of Sindh Police for the first time using mortar guns against the bandits entrenched at an island in Indus river.

According to SSP Irfan Samoo around 50 notorious bandits were hiding at the river island.

Most of the bandits have bounty on their heads from Rs two Lac to two million, the police officer said.

Majority of these criminals were wanted to Sukkur police in kidnapping for ransom, murder, robbery and other crimes, SSP Samoo said.

It is pertinent to mention here that most of these police operations against bandits in riverine forests proved an exercise in futility.

It is to be mentioned here that a DSP was killed in an encounter with dacoits in ‘katcha’ area of Shikarpur in August this year.

A Sukkur police party headed by DSP Rao Shafiullah, reached in Garhi Taigho area of Shikarpur district to recover five kidnapped artists, inclining Sindhi folk singer Jigar Jalal.

The dacoits in an exchange of fire, killed DSP Rao Shafiullah, while two dacoits were also injured in the incident.

Earlier on June 2, two policemen including a SHO had been martyred and three sustained bullet wounds in an encounter against dacoits in Shah Belo area.

The encounter had taken place in the limits of Lakhi Ghulam Shah Police Station, resulting in martyrdom of SHO Ghulam Murtaza Mirani and ASI Zulfikar Panhwar.