OKAR A: Three gunmen were shot dead in an exchange of fire with police late on Friday near village Bahripur on Depalpur-Haveli Lakkha Road, District Police Officer (DPO) Faisal Rana told reporters on Saturday.

He said Deepalpur police were tipped off that three highwaymen had snatched a motorcycle in village Mancharian.

The Deepalpur police chased them who started firing at police near Bahripur. Police called in reinforcements and exchanged fire with the gunmen for one hour. The three gunmen, later identified as Ikram, alias Akri, Bilal, Alias Bali and Khurram, alias Khurmi, were killed in the encounter.

Police seized the stolen motorcycle and illicit weapons on them. A medical board conducted the postmortem of the bodies.

KILLED: Gunmen shot dead a sepoy of the armed forces on resistance near Okara Cant on GT Road on Saturday.

According to the first information, Subedar Tanveer with Sepoy Abdul Malik and Aamir Shahzad picked some guests in his car from the Aljihad bus stop when five gunmen tried to kidnap them.

As Subedar Tanveer resisted them, gunmen started firing leaving Sepoy Abdul Malik, of Noshki, injured and fled.

Malik died on his way to hospital. Okara Cant police registered a case under sections 302, 511 and 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 7-ATA on the report of Subedar Tanveer.