Passerby killed, soldier injured as robbers, Rangers trade fire

Paramilitary soldiers arrested a dismissed cop in an injured condition during a shootout with suspected robbers near Allah Wali Chowrangi, Tariq Road, late on Monday night.

A passerby was also killed and a paramilitary soldier injured in the encounter. A spokesman for the Sindh Rangers said soldiers were busy in checking vehicles near Allah Wali Chowrangi when they witnessed two robbers escaping who after committing a robbery. The soldiers signalled the suspects to stop, but they opened fire instead, injuring Rangers soldier Lance Naik Muhammad Tariq.

The Rangers’ personnel chased the fleeing suspects and retaliated, and after an encounter they managed to arrest in an injured condition one of the men, identified as Ehsaan Illahi, who was alleged to be involved in a number of street crime and robbery cases. His associate fled under the cover of fire.

The spokesman said that due to indiscriminate fire opened by the robbers, passersby, Rab Nawaz and Tauqeer, were injured. They, along with the injured paramilitary soldier, were moved to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where Nawaz expired.

The soldiers a recovered a motorcycle, which was the stolen property of the Bahadurabad Police Station. It had been snatched from a citizen in July 2018. They also found a 30-bore pistol and four cellphones on the arrested suspect, Illahi.

The spokesman said Illahi was a dismissed constable of the Sindh Police and the official service card found on him turned out to be fake. Further investigations are under way. Hospital sources said that they had conducted a postmortem on Nawaz and, according to their initial findings, the man died from a single bullet wound to his head. The bullet was said to be that of a small weapon. The bullet retrieved from the head of the deceased would be handed over to forensic experts of the Sindh Police.

The spokesman for the Sindh Rangers said the soldiers conducted more raids in the Steel Town area from where they arrested six suspects, who were identified as Aashir, Muhammad Danish, Ali Raza, Kaashan Ali, Shahid and Muhammad Waqas.

The arrested men were alleged to be involved in a number of street crime and robbery cases. The soldiers also seized weapons and recovered looted items from the possession of the suspects, who were later handed over to police for further legal action. The investigations are continuing.

Two ‘robbers’ held

Police on Tuesday arrested two suspected robbers after an exchange of fire in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. Station House Officer (SHO) Nasrullah Khan said a police van was patrolling in the area when they received a tip-off that some street criminals were busy in looting the citizen.

Responding to the call, police rushed to the spot and on seeing the police the muggers

opened fire on them, which was retaliated. After the encounter, the police arrested Abdul Ahad and Shahzad. Two pistols, looted cash, a wallet and cell phones were found on them.

During the initial interrogation, the suspects said they were involved in a number of street crime cases which they had committed in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Aziz Bhatti, Mobina Town, Sachal and Sohrab Goth. Ahad had recently completed his BCom and also possesses a diploma in fashion designing. He told the police that his addiction to drugs led him into criminal activities.