Five cops, four dacoits killed in Mirpurkhas encounter

SUKKUR: Five cops, including two SHOs, and four dacoits were killed while six policemen sustained injuries in an encounter in the Mehmoodabad area on Friday night.
DIG Hyderabad Sanaullah Abbasi said SHOs Wahid Bakhsh Leghari and Hassan Abidi and cops Dilbar Unnar, Anwar Ali and Abdul Jabbar were killed in the encounter, while SHO Mumtaz Brohi, Shahzad, Waris, Ghulam Hussain, Sajad and Fazal were injured and shifted to Hyderabad.
The killed bandits were identified as Chotu Narejo, Qurbab Narejo, Abdul Wahab Narejo and Jan Muhammad Narejo.
The DIG said Chotu Narejo was carrying Rs1 million head money. He said the dacoits used women and children as human shields. He said that an exchange of fire between the dacoits and police continued for 12 hours.
The funeral prayers of four martyred policemen was offered in Mirpurkhas, while the funeral of SHO Wahid Bakhsh Leghari was offered at his native village in Hala.
IG Sindh Police Ghulam Haider Jamali, local MPAs and MNAs attended the funeral.
Ghulam Haider Jamali dismissed reports that there was a lack of coordination between the Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad police in the encounter with dacoits.
He said that police officials rendered sacrifices and the Sindh government would write to the federal government to award the Quaid-i-Azam award to them. He said special awards would be given to the families of martyred police personnel, adding that the children of martyred police personnel would be given jobs.
Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah announced Rs10 million for the families of each martyred cop.
NNI adds: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari has expressed grief over the death of police officials in the Mirpurkhas encounter.
Zardari spoke to Qaim Ali Shah on telephone and paid rich tributes to the brave policemen who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.
The former president prayed that Almighty Allah rest the departed souls in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved families to bear the loss with equanimity.