KARACHl: Sindh Home Minister Zia Lanjar on Tuesday ordered a judicial inquiry into an alleged encounter between fleeing robbers and the Steel Town police in which a 60-year-old woman travelling in a car was killed and her 19-year-old daughter critically wounded.

The police claim that the family was caught in the `crossfire` during the `encounter` and the victims were shot by the suspects.

The home minister on Tuesday said that facts regarding the matter must be ascertained through a judicial inquiry.

The Sindh home department has sent a formal letter to the district and sessions judge of Malir for conducting a judicial inquiry into the matter.

The minister directed the deputy commissioner and the SSP of district Malir to provide all possible support and assistance in the judicial inquiry.

The incident took place on July 4 near Gulshan-i-Hadeed when the woman`s family was returning to their home in Thatta in a white car after visiting a city hospital.

Victims` relatives disputed the police version of the incident and blamed the law enforcers for opening `straight fire` on the car carrying their family by `mistaking them as dacoits`.

They, along with political workers, civil society members and influential people from Thatta, had also staged a sit-in on National Highway for two consecutive days after the police refused to lodger their FIR and registered their own case in which they accused the fleeing robbers of firing shots that killed the woman.

Later, they ended their protest after police baton-charged them to clear the National Highway.

`We held a protest and hoped that justice would be done with us, but we are now leaving this issue to Almighty Allah, who will provide better judgment to us,` victim woman`s brother Yaqood Sammo had told the media.