Two police officers were martyred in Shikarpur district of Sindh on Wednesday after unknown assailants opened fire on them, according to a statement from the operations room of the Sindh Inspector General (IGP).
According to the statement issued by the operating room to dawn.comThe two officers, identified as Altaf Brohi and Abdul Qadir Qallati, were “in plain clothes” and eating at a restaurant in the Garhi Taigo area when unidentified suspects approached the restaurant and shot them before fleeing the scene. Both agents embraced martyrdom.
The IGP’s operations room added that the bodies of the officers were shifted to Shikarpur Civil Hospital. This information was verified by Khanpur Deputy Superintendent of Police Sagheer Ahmed Mugheeri.
Meanwhile, Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjhar sought details about the incident from senior superintendents of police in Kashmore and Shikarpur, before promising “thorough and systematic action” against the suspects.
“Criminals who martyr police officers, as well as their gangs and enablers, must be eliminated,” Lanjhar said in a statement issued by his office. “Ongoing targeted operations against thieves must be intensified.”
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah expressed “pain and anger” over the incident and the martyrdom of two officers, according to a statement from his office.
The CM directed the Larkana Deputy Inspector General of Police to immediately arrest the suspects and submit a report.
“All government machinery should be used to restore peace in the area,” the CM said in the statement.
Organized criminal gangs have been active in the riverine border areas of southern Sindh and central Punjab for decades, often making money through kidnappings for ransom.
The army had launched a large-scale operation against criminal gangs in Sindh in the early 1990s, but they re-emerged after successive governments failed to maintain law and order in the province.
Sindh Police and Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) decided in August to intensify ongoing joint operations against bandits in the riverine areas of the province.
On August 29, one policeman was martyred and two were injured during an anti-bandit operation carried out in the riverine areas of Sindh, according to a statement by the Rangers spokesperson.
A few days earlier on August 22, at least 11 policemen were martyred and nine injured after two police vehicles came under rocket attack by robbers in Machka area near the Punjab-Sindh border, he said. a Punjab Police spokesperson.
