Alleged car thief gunned down in Maymar shootout

Personnel of the Anti-Vehicle Lifting Cell (AVLC) gunned down an alleged car lifter in a shootout in Gulshan-e-Maymar off the Super Highway on Friday evening.

SSP Anwar Ali, chief of the Karachi AVLC, said that on Friday afternoon, a citizen, Irfan, who owns a property business in Defence House Authority, registered a complaint at the Defence police station that he had parked his Toyota Corolla car on Street No. 14, DHA’s Phase-II Extension and had gone to his office for some work.

When he returned, he found that his car had gone missing. Later, he approached the tracker company, which confirmed that the tracker in the car was still running. Later, he went to the Defence police station and registered an FIR.

SSP Ali said that the case was transferred to the AVLC and they started coordinating with the tracker company and on Friday evening managed to locate the vehicle in the Gulshan-e-Maymar area.

The information was shared with the patrolling team of the AVLC who responded immediately and intercepted suspects with the stolen vehicle.

On seeing the police, the suspects opened fire, which was retaliated. After the encounter they managed to arrest one suspect with injuries while his four associates managed to escape from the spot under the cover of fire.

The injured suspect was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. The AVLC cops recovered the stolen vehicle and seized a weapon.

Moreover, the killed suspect was identified as Umer Khalid, who was alleged to be a member of a notorious car lifters’ gang and had earlier been arrested by Tipu Sultan and Ferozabad police in car lifting cases in 2021. He later obtained bail and started his criminal activities. Further investigations are underway.