A robber and a passer by were shot dead by Sabzazar Police in an exchange of fire in an alleged encounter on Wednesday.
Two passers-by including a minor girl also sustained injuries during the cross firing of police and robbers.
The deceased passer-by was identified 25-year-old Phuman Hussain, a resident of Sabzazar Area while the deceased robber was not identified yet. Police said three robbers on a bike intercepted two citizens namely Ahmad Nawaz and Noor Ahmed in G-Block, Sabzazar and deprived them of their valuables including cash and mobile phone.
Meanwhile, the officials of Mujahid Squad chased the robbers and started exchanging fire with them. One of the robbers sustained serious bullet injuries.
According to police, the remaining robbers intensified their firing, which injured three passer-bys including Phuman Hussain and a minor girl.
Unidentified robber died on the spot while local police with the help of rescue officials rushed injured passers-bys to the Jinnah Hospital where Phuman Hussain expired while doctors stated the other to be in stable condition. Police removed the dead bodies to city mortuary for autopsy and started investigating the matter. Witnesses, however, without disclosing their names, however, suspected that Phuman Hussain and two other passer-bys might have received bullet injuries due to the firing of police party and not of the robbers. In order to justify their claims, they said, the officials of Muhafiz Squad were speechless after seeing the injured passer-bys and they waited anxiously for the arrival of their seniors at crime scene. However, Operation DIG Ghulam Mehmood Dogar narrated the same story and said the robbers had injured the passer-bys.
It would be important to mention here that couple of weeks ago a passer-by lost his life during cross-firing between police and robbers during an alleged encounter in Nishter Colony Area. Police authorities who had initially denied killing the passer-by, had later the same night arrested their SHO Inspector Akmal and few other cops on the complaint of deceased’s brother. The FIR stated that the deceased had died due to firing of cops.
