RAHIM YAR KHAN: Five policemen were martyred on Thursday when dozens of dacoits attacked a police check post in Katcha area between Chowk Sewetra and Chowk Mahi near Guddu-Kashmore Road in Sadigabad tehsil, some 65 kilometres from district headquarters Rahim Yar Khan.

According to initial reports, more than 40 dacoits of Katcha area, armed with hand grenades and rocket launchers, attacked Sheikhani police check post in Katcha area on Thursday night, taking advantage of darkness.

Sharing details of the incident with reporters after attending funeral of the five martyred policemen, Inspector General of Punjab Dr Usman Anwar said that operation against dacoits was in progress and it would continue.

He said five policemen were martyred in the attack while two others survived.

The Elite Force policemen martyred in the bandits` attack were identified as Muhammad Irfan, Muhammad Saleem, Nukhail, Khalil and Ghazanfar. The first three officers were from Bahawalnagar while the other two belonged to Rahim Yar Khan.

He said police were tracing locations of dacoits with thermal cameras and `we would try our best to protect the people of Punjaband Rahim Yar Khan from the bandits and police operation in the area will continue till the elimination of all dacoits`.

He said that an armoured personnel carrier of police was present almost one kilometre away from the police picket attacked by the bandits.

Dr Anwar said there were five police check posts on a 15-kilometre-long road and `we could not provide an armoured personnel carrier for each and every police check-post`.

The IG said that it was not a single gang of dacoits which was involved in the attack, but different gangs of bandits coordinated witheach otherandtook partinthe attack on the police check post.

He said now policemen have been provided armoured personnel carriers, bulletproof jackets, thermal cameras and thermal imaging weapons to counter the dacoits.

`We used the latest technology against the dacoits, but in the current attack, dacoits used rocket launchers and fired rockets on the police,` he said.

He said the most dangerous areas are Machka and Bhong areas and police are continuing their operation in Katcha Karachi and Katcha Umrani islands in the Indus.