KARACHI: A police officer and a suspected robber were shot dead during an encounter in Qualdabad while a teenage boy passing by was wounded, police and hospital officials said.

Later, the police detained four relatives of the killed suspect outside the Jinnah hospital who were reportedly alleging that the police had killed the `innocent` man.

Malir senior superintendent of police Javed Akbar Riaz told Dawn that two policemen were patrolling in Muzaffarabad Colony.

When they entered a street near Afridi Masjid, they were attacked by the suspects selling contraband drugs. During an exchange of fire, head constable Altaf Hussain and suspectShahzad and 13-year-old passerby Samiullah received bullet wounds.

The injured were taken to the JPMC, where the suspect was pronounced dead on arrival. The head constable died during treatment, said Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the JPMC`s emergency department. Dr Jamali said that the condition of the boy was out of danger as he sustained wounds in a leg. The teenager was initially taken to another hospital and later on was referred to the JPMC.

The police seized a 9mm pistol and half a kilogram of charas from the custody of the killed suspect, said the Malir SSP.

The SSP said the police detained four persons outside the casualty department of the JPMC on suspicions of being accomplices of the killed suspect.