Abduction: Three men killed in ‘shootout’ with police

Police say men kidnapped and killed truck driver.

BAHAWALPUR:

Three men were killed late on Wednesday night in an alleged shoot out with the police.

Police claimed the three men had kidnapped a tractor driver and seized the tractor. They said they had demanded Rs2.5 million to return him but later killed him and dumped his body in a canal.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Rahim Yar Khan DPO Sohail Zafar Chattha said Zahirpur Station  House Officer Muhammad Ashraf had tried to flag down a tractor being followed by a black car on Jajja Abbasian Road at 4am.

He said some men in the car opened fire at the police who took cover behind the trees and fired back.

He said two men riding the tractor and one in the car were hit by bullets and died before they reached a hospital.

He said three men in the car managed to escap.



He said the tractor had been identified by Malik Sharafat, a resident of Mujahid Colony in Liaqatpur. He said Sharafat had informed them the tractor was driven by Sher Ali who was kidnapped on December 6 after he delivered cotton to the Bhutta Dawood Cotton Factory.

He said the kidnappers had demanded Rs2.5 million to return Ali and the tractor. He said a kidnapping for ransom case had been registered in the Khanpur Saddar police station. He said Ali’s body was found a week later from a canal.

Chattha said Ali had been buried at a local graveyard temporarily but was returned to his family on identification.

He said Rs10,000 was given by police to his family.

He said police were searching for the three fled.

Chattha was flanked at the press conference by Investigation SP Shiraz Nazeer and Headquarters SP Tanveer Hussain.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2012.