MULTAN: Khanewal police killed two brothers, who were alleged dacoits, in an encounter with their accomplices late on Sunday night.

They were in police custody on physical remand for the last couple of days.

According to a police handout issued on Monday, both the brothers, identified as Afzal and Aslam Machhi, were involved in 21 cases, including those of killings androbberies.

`Both the dacoits were killed in a crossfire during an encounter with Khanewal Saddar police,` District Police Officer Jahanzeb Nazeer Khan claimed while talking to the media.

He said besides being involved in various criminal activities, Afzal and Aslam had also killed lady health worker Razia during a dacoity bid. Police had managed to arrest them.

Giving details of the encounter, the DPO claimed police were returning, along with the accused, to the police station after recovering the gun they had used for killing the lady health worker when their accomplices riding a car and a motorcycle intercepted police near Haleem Chowk, Chak 83-85/10-R.

`The attackers opened indiscrimi-nate fire on police for the dacoits` release and the police retaliated,` he said. Meanwhile, both the accused started running towards their accomplices after escaping from the police van, he claimed, adding that both were injured seriously because of the crossfire.

The attackers succeededtoescape from the scene due to darkness.

`Both Afzal and Aslam were unable to survive the injuries and died, the DPO claimed.

He further claimed the accused were wanted by police in 21 cases lodged with Abdul Hakeem, Tulamba, Makhdoompur and Khanewal Sadder police stations.

`Three cases of murder, eight cases of robbery and 10 of possessing illegal weapons were registered against Afzal and Aslam,` he said.