RAWALPINDI: Three suspected robbers, who escaped during a raid near Khanna Bridge in Sadiqabad police area on Wednesday, were killed in an encounter near Islamabad Airport which falls in Attock police area.

Earlier in the day, the Attock police raided their hideout in Sadiqabad in collaboration with the Rawalpindi police in which a suspected robber was injured but they escaped.

The Attock police had information that six members of an interprovincial gang were hiding in a house in the area. Five of them, however, managed to escape, but police chased them and gunned down three of them.

The police have launched a search for the remaining two suspected robbers who escaped on motorcycles.

Police said the injured suspected robber, wanted by Attock police in several robbery cases, was taken into custody by the police and shifted to Benazir Bhutto Hospital where he was stated to be in stable condition.

Regional Police Officer Rawalpindi, Sohail Habib Tajik said the remaining five members of the suspected inter-provincial gang of robbers who escaped from Sadiqabad were intercepted by the Attock police where three of them were killed during the encounter.

Attock District Police Officer (DPO) Khalid Hamdani told Dawn that the suspected inter-provincial gang of robbers, wanted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Attock police, was involved in more than 50 robberies. In some cases they tortured women and children besides depriving them of cash and valuables.

He said the two encounters with the robbers’ gang took place in Rawalpindi near Khanna Bridge and near Islamabad International Airport.

The DPO said the police conducted a raid in the light of information that the robbers’ gang was actively operating in Rawalpindi and hiding near Khanna Bridge.

He said as the police raided their hideout in Sadiqabad, they retaliated and opened fire on the police party. The police raiding party escaped the attack.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2020