SUKKUR: Two suspected dacoits were gunned down in a shootout with police and commuters along Pir Zubair Road within the limits of the Lakhi Ghulam Shah police station of Shikarpur late Saturday night.

Reports reaching here from different sourcessuggested that six heavily armed dacoits were standing at a section of the road with intention to rob commuters at around 3:30am.

Shikarpur police claimed that as soon as they received information about it, they rushed to the specified place and challenged them.

They said that the suspects opened fire at the police party which wasreturned.

The encounter left two of the dacoits dead but their associates managed to escape, SHO of the Lakhi Ghulam Shah police station who led the action, said.

He added that the bodies were taken to the police station, where the dead were identified as Wahab Jagirani, a resident of Lashkar village, and Behram Malik, a resident of Dhani Bakhsh Malik village.

`The dacoits were wanted by police in a number of robbery and other cases of heinous crimes registered against them at different police stations,` the police said.

They said that special police teams had been formed to arrest those who escaped during the encounter.An FIR of the incident was registered at the police station on behalf of the state. Further investigation was under way.

Meanwhile, a video clip circulating on the social media showed the armed men engaged in a shootout with bodyguards of Sardarzada Zain Khan Jakhrani, son of PPP MPA Mir Mumtaz Khan Jakhrani. The video clip showed the dead dacoits lying on road.

Sardarzada Zain Khan, along with his bodyguards, was travelling to his residence in Garhi Khero (Jacobabad district) from Sukkur at that time. Social media reports suggested that the gangsters tried to rob them which led to the shootout and ended up in the killing of the two dacoits.