SUKKUR / DERA MURAD JAMALI: Six members of the Anti-Terrorist Force of Baloc­histan Police, including a sub-inspector, embraced martyrdom while two others suffered injuries in a shoot-out with kidnappers at the Chand water channel in the jurisdiction of Mouladad police station in Jacobabad on Wedn­esday, police said.

A Jacobabad-based band of criminals, known as Mitho Shah gang, had kidnapped Furqan, the son of rice mill owner Aslam Soomro from Balochistan and brought him to the Mouladad area.

Furqan Soomro was waylaid in the Kashmirabad area of Jaffa­rabad, while returning to Usta Mohammad town from Jacobabad on Tuesday night, police said.

According to police, SSP Hasnain Iqbal came to Jacobabad from Jaffarabad along with a team. SSP Jacobabad Dr Sumair Noor Channa along with a large contingent of police also reached there to support the Balochistan police.

Balochistan police team was trying to recover son of mill owner from Sindh-based gang

Balochistan police then launched the operation to rescue the hostage. They were near Chand Shakh in the Jageer area when members of the Mitho Shah Gang holed up on the embankment of the water channel opened fire.

In the ensuing exchange, Sub-Insp­ector Tayyab Hussain Umr­ani, SHO of Usta Mohammad police station, and policemen Abdul Wahab, Mohammad Usman, Riaz Hussain, Syed Khadim Hussain Shah and Nisar Ahmed were martyred, while Husain Ali and Altaf Hussain were injured.

“Heavy exchange of fire continued for hours,” DIG Nasirabad Munir Ahmed Sheikh told Dawn.

The bodies and the injured were rushed to the Jacobabad civil hospital from where Cons­table Hassan Ali was referred to another hospital owing to his precarious condition.

The bodies were handed over to their heirs after post-mortem examinations, police said.

Officials said Constable Kha­d­im Hussain Shah was indu­cted into the force after his father Insp­ector Syed Jalaluddin was martyred in an anti-terrorist operation in Sibi.

DIG Munir said, “We have sent more police and ATF personnel to the area while Sindh Police has also joined the Balochistan police and is taking part in the operation against the armed dacoits.”

He said the Mitho Shah and Jakhrani gangs are involved in the kidnapping of Furqan Soomro.

“The operation is underway and will continue till the recovery of the hostage and arrest of the gang involved,” DIG Munir said, adding the Sindh police had already announced a bounty of Rs3 million on their head.

SSP Channa vowed to bring the gang to justice soon.

Residents of Mouladad said the Mitho Shah Gang has become a symbol of terror in the area. The bike-riding gangsters often attack police officials, rob and terrorise citizens and passengers of their valuables and break into houses, they added.

Sometime back, they recalled, the gang deprived the staff of water supply department of their money and valuables and shot fires at the transformer of the pump station suspending water supply to Jacobabad for days.

Funeral prayers for SHO Umrani and Constable Abdul Wahab were held while bodies of other personnel were sent to their native villages.

Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo expressed grief and commended the martyred for “facing the enemy with bravery”, and prayed for their families to have patience.

Mr Bizenjo expressed the hope that the Sindh government would soon bring to justice those responsible for the incident.

Saleem Shahid in Quetta also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2023