KARACHI, April 23: Three suspected gangsters and a woman passer-by were killed and a Rangers official was wounded in an exchange of gunfire in a Lyari locality on Tuesday evening, police said.

They said that a team of Rangers and Anti-Violent Crime Cell went to Lyari to carry out a raid to recover a young student, who had been kidnapped on Monday.

The kidnappers had already killed the captive before the raid.

DIG-South Shahid Hayat told Dawn that the Rangers and police team came under an armed attack when they reached Kalakot.

“The kidnappers opened fire on them, wounding a deputy superintendent of Rangers. The team returned fire killing three suspects,” he added.

The suspects were identified as Abdullah, Ajnas alias Anna and Tahir. They reportedly belonged to alleged Lyari gangster Mullah Nisar’s gang, the DIG said.

A passer-by woman, Shanti Mohan, was killed in crossfire, the police said.

The DIG said that the kidnapped man, Mohammad Irfan, 24, had already killed been by his captors, who had dumped the body in Lyari earlier on Tuesday.

The victim was a student and a resident of Liaquatabad’s Super Market area.

The young man was kidnapped in the Karachi Zoological Gardens area on Monday.

The AVCC along with the Rangers went to Lyari on Monday night in pursuit of the victim, but returned without success, AVCC SSP Niaz Ahmed Khosa told Dawn.

“During the raid, we picked up five suspects, who told the police that they had killed the victim on Monday night when the Rangers and police had arrived in Lyari,” SSP Khosa said. “The gang of kidnappers was a conglomerate of different criminal elements belonging to different political parties,” he added.

Estate agent shot dead A real estate agent was gunned down in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on Tuesday.

Police said gunmen stormed into the estate agency of Akbar Baloch, 30, in Sher Mohammad Goth and opened fire. One of the assailants carried out the shooting, while his accomplice kept waiting on their getaway motorbike, they said.

The suspects fled following the shooting.

The police said that the victim died before he could be taken to hospital. Later his body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.