Raids and encounters: Retaliation to gangsters’ killings leaves one dead

Four were also wounded when gangsters opened fire in Lyari

KARACHI: Alleged gangsters killed on Thursday a teenager and wounded four others by indiscriminate firing in Lyari in reaction to the killing of their comrades a day earlier.

On Wednesday night, five suspects belonging to a Lyari gang were killed during two separate encounters with law enforcers.

An encounter between the gangsters and the police occurred in Baldia Town, in which at least four gangsters were killed. Their bodies were shifted to Civil hospital for autopsies where they were identified as Tahir alias Tehra, Sajid alias Jawwad, Shahjahan alias Jamil and Irfan alias Salman while their companions, Akram alias Akku and Ghousi, managed to escape. Police officials claim to have recovered explosives, detonators, hand grenades and weapons from their possession.

Read: Encounter: Rangers, police kill members of Lyari gang war

Baldia division SP Ejaz Hashmi said that the encounter took place when the police conducted a raid at the hideout of the gangsters, adding that the police faced massive resistance from the gangsters, due to which extra contingents of police were called in.

Hashmi said that the gangsters belonged to the Baba Ladla group and were wanted by the police in various cases of murders, attempted murders, kidnapping, extortion and attacks on law enforcers.

Similarly, another gangster belonging to a Lyari gang was killed, while his companion was arrested in an injured condition, during an exchange of fire with the police and Rangers in the Chakiwara area of Lyari. The deceased was later identified as Liaquat Baloch, 19, while the injured as Siddiq Baloch, 16. Weapons were also recovered from their possession.

The killing of the gangsters during alleged encounters caused panic and fear in Lyari where gangsters resorted to indiscriminate fire in some areas.

Eighteen-year-old Ramzan was killed while four others, including Salman, Rehmatullah and Khalid, were wounded at in Gul Muhammad Lane during the firing. The wounded and deceased were taken to Civil Hospital.

Following the incident, people staged a protest against the incident and shouted slogans against the gangsters and law enforcers. Protesters set tyres on roads and blocked the flow of traffic in the area.

They demanded the law enforcers take the action against the gangsters. "One of them [killed gangsters] was caught and handed over to the law enforcers by the area's people last month and now he has been killed in a fake encounter," said one of the residents, who wished not to be named.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2015.