ISLAMABAD: A police constable was shot dead by suspected robbers early Sunday.

Duty officer at the Sabzi Mandi police station Allah Dad told Dawn that at around 5:15am two armed men riding a motorcycle stopped Mohammad Yar, a resident of Charsadda, who was crossing the I.J. Principal Road, and tried to rob him.In the meantime, police constables Zaheer Saqib and Noor Khan reached the spot in a bike. When the policemen asked the robbers to surrender, they opened fire on them. As a result, a bullet hit Zaheer Saqib, 29, who was driving the motorbike, in the belly. When the other police official retaliated, his bullet hit a passerby and injured him. However, the robbers escaped. The injured policeman was shifted to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The funeral of the policeman was offered at the police headquarters in which Inspector General Mohammad Khalid Khattak, AIG operation Sultan Azam Temuri and other officers participated.

The body of the constable was later dispatched to his native Shahdadpur town in the district of Sanghar, Sindh. A police official said the deceased was married and had a three-year-old son.

“On April 10, an alleged robber was killed in police firing in the limits of Sihala police. After that incident, policemen on mobile duty were verbally directed not to shoot any suspected person and arrest them,” a police official said.

He said after the direction, Zaheer had the only option to open fire in retaliation. “It is not fair to restrict the police officials to wait until one of their colleagues is killed,” he said.

Sabzi Mandi Station House Officer (SHO) Asjid Mehmood told Dawn that the police were checking all government and private hospitals in the twin cities because one of the suspects was injured and might have been taken to a healthcare centre.