Karachi: Police on Sunday gunned down at least six suspected burglars, including a woman, amid a surge in violence and killings in the city.
In an early morning encounter with members of the Lyari gangs, police shot down three of them. The encounter took place when the police raided a hideout of the gangsters at Mawach Goth, a low-lying area in the western district.
The suspected gangster opened fire on the police party and in the retaliatory fire three of them were fatally shot. Six of the gangsters fled from the scene taking advantage of the pre-dawn darkness.
The alleged gangsters who were killed were identified as Shahid, Shoaib alias Mix Pati, and Jaseem alias Golden.
In another shootout, the police killed three robbers, including a woman, in Gulshane Kaneez Fatima, in the northern part of the city. The burglars entered a house and someone informed the police while the burglars were still inside the house.
Sources said that the police arrived on the spot and warned them to surrender but they opened fire on the police. In retaliatory firing, three of the burglars sustained bullet wounds. One of them died on the spot while the woman and her male partner died in hospital.
Meanwhile, paramilitary rangers carried out a raid in Mujahid colony of Nazimabad town and arrested 13 suspects, recovering 60 weapons of varying calibre. The suspected belonged to a banned group and were arrested in a house to house search. Some 300 rangers participated in the raid and cordoned off the area during the raid.
Late Saturday night, special investigation unit (SIU) of police arrested four suspected activists including the kingpin of the group belonging to Lashkar Jhangvi, a banned sectarian outfit. The police said that the group’s arrest came in a raid on their hideout on a tipoff.
Police said that the group was involved in firing on a Shiite procession in 2013 and they also killed a wife and a husband in the north Karachi area. The group was also wanted for attacking an outlet of a cellphone franchise. The group, whose head was identified as Yaseen alias Yaroo, was also involved in extortion and robberies.