SUKKUR: Two gangsters, one of them carrying a head money of Rs10 million, were shot dead in, what police claimed, a fierce encounter on Kando Wahan link road off Airport Road in the city on Monday.

The Sukkur police using CRD (criminal record-identification device) identified one of them as Imran Bhayo, son of Umer Deen, a most wanted criminal carrying a head money of Rs10 million notified by Sindh government.

Giving details of the alleged encounter, a spokesman for the Sukkur police said that on a tip-off about movement of the gangsters within the limits of the Airport police station, SSP Sanghar Malik had on Sunday night ordered cordoning of different roads and the city’s entry/exit points.

The spokesman said that at one such point, police signaled a Suzuki Mehran car to stop for checking but its driver broke the cordon and sped away.

A police party chased the car and alerted all personnel manning check posts in the area. The car was intercepted on Kando Wahan link road but its occupants opened fire on police to escape arrest.

The spokesman said that a fierce gun battle ensued during which both car riders sustained fatal bullet wounds.

According to the Sukkur police, Imran Bhayo was the ringleader of an interprovincial gang of car-lifters operating in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab for long. He and his accompanying gangster, Mir Dost Bhayo, were wanted by police in dozens of cases of heinous crimes.

“Initial checking of police record shows more than 60 such cases registered against them at various police stations of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab,” he said, adding that more cases against them might surface in further checking.

The spokesman said that a Kalashnikov rifle, a pistol, ammunition, car-lifting gadgets, some police uniforms and fake number plates, besides the car they were riding, were seized from the dead gangsters.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2022