Wanted criminals: 3 killed in shootout with police

DPO says the three men were members of a gang that had been terrorising the people.

BAHAWALPUR:

Three men, who the police said were wanted for kidnap, murder and robbery, were killed in a shootout with the police on Wednesday night. Police said they recovered a 7mm rifle, a 0.12 bore gun, two pistols and two hand grenades on them.

They were identified as Ghulam Mustafa Baloch, Khalil Ahmad and Muhammad Sajjad. At a press conference on Thursday, District Police Officer Sohail Habib Tajik said that the three men were members of a gang that had been terrorising the people of Bahawalpur and Lodhran. He said they had been involved in violent crime for 25 years. Most recently, he said, they had kidnapped three people in December 2012. He said they had killed one of them after his family could not pay the ransom money on time. They had dumped the body near a cotton factory. The two other abducted men had been recovered in a raid, but the criminals had managed to flee.

The DPO said on Wednesday night, a house in Sheikh Shajra village was raided on a tip. On seeing the police, the three men shot at them. The police shot back. The exchange of fire continued for more than two hours till the criminals were hit and died on the spot.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2013.