A suspected robber was killed and another arrested after a police encounter in Samanabad, while an accomplice of theirs escaped taking advantage of darkness.

The police said they were conducting a search operation to arrest the third suspect.

Samanabad police shifted the body to a hospital for post-mortem and started questioning his arrested accomplice.

Police officials said three men riding a motorcycle in Nisar Colony robbed a citizen, Muhammad Osman Khalid, and fled towards Aziz Town.

SHO Rizwan Shaukat, who was patrolling the area, intercepted the robbers.

In an ensuing crossfire, 30-year-old Bashir Allah Ditta was killed while his accomplices tried to escape.

One of them, Umar Farooq, a resident of Samundri, was arrested by the police who seized weapons from him.

The police shifted the body to the Allied Hospital Mortuary Unit and started a search operation in the area to arrest the suspect who had escaped.

One of citizens who gathered at the spot after the incident said incidents of robbery in Abdullah Colony had been on the rise.

Samanabad SHO Rizwan Shaukat said the arrested suspect Umar Farooq was involved in 45 cases.

He said the gang of dacoits had six members of whom four committed robberies and two backed up them.

The Samanabad police registered a case against the killed, captured and escaped men under the provisions of murder, attempted murder, interference in official business and possession of illegal weapons.

Officials said an investigation had been launched.

Meanwhile, a drug addict was stabbed to death during an altercation with another addict.

The police took the body into custody and started searching for the relatives of the victim and the attacker.

According to the police, the two addicts got into an argument near Sheikh Colony in Jhang Bazaar, during which one of them stabbed the other and injured him.

The 40-year-old injured man was shifted to the Allied Hospital Surgical Emergency Department where he died.

Jhang Bazaar police shifted the body to the mortuary unit for post-mortem and launched efforts to trace the family of the deceased.

A search for the attacker was also launched.

Police officials said the victim had died due to excessive bleeding.