KARACHI: Three robbers, including one with recommended head-money of Rs10m, were shot dead in an encounter in F ‘B’ Area’s block 12, police claimed on Thursday.

They said the suspects had barged into a house and were trying to escape by holding the family hostage at gunpoint. “But under a strategy, a police team foiled the robbery and killed the suspects,” they added.

The Gulberg police said that four suspects had barged into the house near Bombay Bakers and held its two occupants hostage at gunpoint. A police team rushed to the spot on a spy information and challenged them.

In the ensuing encounter, three of the suspects were gunned down but a fourth one managed to escape by their car parked outside. The police recovered three pistols and shifted the bodies to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities.

West-DIG Fida Husain Mastoi told the media that the suspects were travelling in a silver colour Corolla car. The gang was known to have been involved in several robberies and, therefore, the police were already alert after receiving spy information about presence of the silver corolla car in the area, the DIG said. When the suspects entered the house with intention to commit robbery, a police team rushed to the spot, he added.

Gulberg SHO Imtiaz Tanoli told Dawn that the four suspects hit the house at around 11:15am. Three of them entered the house while the fourth one stayed in their car parked outside. As soon as the police team arrived at the scene, the suspect sped away.

The three suspects present inside, however, came out of the house using its occupants, a man and a woman, as a shield to escape police action and flee the area.

But the police quickly drew a strategy to get the hostages freed and arrest or kill the suspects, said the SHO.

Residents of the neighbourhood said that the area reverberated with gunshot sound during the course of the encounter. Some of the residents also used their licensed arms to prevent the suspects from running away.

The panicked suspects abandoned their hostages in the street and tried to flee the area while firing into the air but police gunned them down.

Central-SSP Maroof Usman said one of the deceased suspects appeared to be Yaseen Bhayo, who hailed from Kandhkot and the Anti-Vehicles Lifting Cell had recommended a head-money of Rs10 million on him but it was yet to be approved by government.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2022