Lahore: Police 'encounters' 5 more wanted criminals: Score 35 in 4 months

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Toll from encounters over last four months now 35

Staff Report

LAHORE: The city police continued its series of ‘encounters’, which eliminated five more alleged criminals on Thursday in the Harbanspura Police precincts.

The death toll in police encounters over the past few months has now reached 35.

According to police sources, CIA Police killed the five wanted men in an encounter that lasted over three hours. The sources said the criminals were members of an inter-district gang involved in 160 cases of murder, attempted murder, robbery, gang rape and other crimes. The police received a tip-off and raided village Sardarpura in Jallo.

According to the police, the criminals opened fire on the raiding team. The police retaliated. The five men were killed on the spot. Four of the accused were identified as Iftikhar, Ghulam Farid, Badal Masih and Ghulam Ali. Ghulam Farid alias Faridi had head money of Rs 1.5 million, the police said. The police seized two kalashnikovs, two hand grenades, three pistols and two mobile phones. The criminals were wanted by the police of Lahore, Kasur, Sheikhupura, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Sahiwal, Okara, Nankana Sahib and Gujranwala.

This is the third such encounter in September. On September 15, CIA police killed three accused criminals in two encounters in Shadbagh. Two of the accused were wanted for killing a young boy after kidnapping him and receiving ransom from his parents. The man killed in the other encounter was wanted for having killed three women in their house a day earlier.

On September 17, Shadman Police killed Muhammad Shabbir and Muhammad Irfan in an encounter. The accused were wanted for the murder of a trader after kidnapping him.

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