SUKKUR: A joint operation launched by Rangers and police to recover SHO Mehboob Brohi and his four colleagues abducted by a gang in an attack on the Kot Shahu police station of Shikarpur district continued for a third consecutive day without any breakthrough.

It was reported that around 30 heavily armed dacoits belonging to the Baddhani Jatoi gang had stormed their way into the police station and taken away SHO Brohi and four constables, one of them his undertraining brother, along with a number of official weapons and a sizeable quantity of ammunition on Wednesday (October 11).

A strong police contingent chased the gangsters deep into the riverine area of Kot Shahu but could not reach them. Subsequently, a Rangers-police force equipped with armoured personnel carriers (APCs) rolled into the adjacent Naparkot riverine area to rescue the hostages and arrest the gangsters. Till late Saturday evening, the law enforcement agencies had failed to locate them.

The Shikarpur police over the last three days kept claiming that suspected hideouts of gangsters were being destroyed and many suspects detained every day to find a clue to the kidnappers and the hostages.

The Kot Shahu police have already registered an FIR against 30 attackers of the police station and named some of them.

Police sources and media reports suggest that the attack and kidnapping were aimed at getting released Mahar Baddhani Jatoi alias Mehram — one of the most wanted dacoits – arrested in a recent major operation against gangs.

While Larkana DIG Javed Jiskani and Shikarpur SSP on Saturday repeated Sindh police’s resolve that Mehram would not be set free at any cost, there were reports that some senior police officials had approached certain powerful feudals of the district urging them to use their influence on the Baddhani Jatoi ringleader in getting the kidnapped SHO and his colleagues released.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2023