Encounter: Hostages freed as police kill five ‘criminals’

The men had killed three persons, relatives say killers were from Bajaur Agency.

FAISALABAD:

Five people were killed in a shootout with the police on Sunday after they killed three men and took two hostages.

Police said, some men in a white car shot and killed Jan Wali Khan, Muhammad Shafiq Khan and Yar Muhammad Khan in Bhowana. The police was alerted to the killings and set up a picket on Chiniot-Bhowana Road. A police spokesman said the car was spotted at the picket.

“Instead of stopping, the men in the car started shooting at the police team,” he said.

The spokesman said a police team headed by Bhowana Station House Officer (SHO) Muhammad Yousuf Kamlana chased the attackers. He said the men then hid in a field.

He said when they were asked to surrender, the men started shooting at the police and also took two villagers hostage. The police then called for a back up to assist with the operation.

Regional Police Officer (RPO) Muhammad Nawaz Warraich sent the Elite Force from Faisalabad and Jhang as well as Chiniot District Police Officer (DPO) Rao Munir to assist them.

The operation lasted four hours during which the hostages were recovered and the attackers killed. SHO Kamlana told The Express Tribune that the killers were yet to be identified. He said relatives of the three persons killed by the men claimed the men were from Bajaur Agency and had an enmity with them.

A cameraman of private TV Channel Muhammad Aslam and a passerby Muhammad Jameel also sustained injuries but they were declared out of danger.

The RPO said in a statement, “Poor people were killed by the men. These were cobblers and shoe shiners and posed no threat to anyone.”

He said that during the shootout, they had thrown a hand grenade at the police. He said it was the hand grenade that prompted the call for reinforcements and Elite Force. “Their bodies have been taken into custody and sent to mortuary for post mortem,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2014.