File Photo. Farooq Naeem—AFP
Seven cops abducted after approximately 40 dacoits target checkpost.
Bandits have attacked a police checkpoint and kidnapped seven policemen in Punjab province, officials said on Sunday.
The incident happened Saturday night in the Much area of Sadiqabad. “Around 40 dacoits attacked the checkpost and kidnapped seven police officials,” said district police chief Sohail Zafar Chattha.
He said law enforcement agencies had driven bandits out of the area a few years ago but they started operating again recently, shuttling between Much and the border towns of neighboring Sindh province.
The outlaws recently killed a police officer in the town of Ghotki in Sindh.
A strong police contingent backed by armored personnel carriers was mounting an operation to rescue the seven policemen, Chattha added.
Bandits have been active in the border areas of Sindh and Punjab provinces for decades. The military launched a full-scale operation against them in Sindh in the early 1990s but they resurfaced after successive governments failed to maintain law and order in the province.