- Police say four officials went missing after dacoits' attack.
- Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemns attack on police.
- Vows govt to stand beside families of martyred cops.
RAHIM YAR KHAN: At least 12 policemen were martyred and six sustained injuries after kacha bandits attacked their vans with rockets in a riverine area of Punjab's Rahim Yar Khan on Thursday.
The horrific attack occurred in the Machka area located in one of Rahim Yar Khan's riverine areas.
Police officials told the media that two police vans with more than 20 cops were trapped in rainwater in the locality when bandits launched rockets at them.
As a result of the fierce attack, a dozen cops were martyred while seven others were wounded and five went missing, the police added.
They said that the wounded cops were immediately shifted to the hospital where one of the wounded officials succumbed to his wounds, taking the death toll to 12.
According to the police, the missing five policemen were safely rescued.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the dacoits' attack on Punjab police and paid tribute to the martyred cops.
He also prayed for the early recovery of the wounded policemen and pledged that the government would stand beside the families of the martyred cops.
In a statement, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz expressed sorrow over the martyrdom of police personnel saying that the sacrifices of the cops will always be remembered.
She directed the authorities concerned to take immediate action to recover the missing policemen.
The chief minister also sought a report from the Punjab Police Inspector General (IG) Dr Usman Anwar on the Rahim Yar Khan incident besides directing to provide the best medical aid to the injured police officials.
Following her directives, the Punjab police chief, Additional IG Special Branch, Additional IG Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and other relevant officers left for Rahim Yar Khan, as per the statement.
Bandit groups in riverine areas have always been a hurdle in maintaining law and order for the provincial governments in Sindh and Punjab despite conducting multiple operations to eliminate them.
A National Action Plan implementation review committee decided in a meeting at the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) headquarters in April to launch a joint operation of Sindh and Punjab police forces against notorious dacoits of the kacha areas in Sindh.
The directives were issued by Interior Minister Naqvi who chaired the high-level meeting attended by the interior secretary, heads of Nacta and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), police chiefs of Punjab, Sindh, KP, Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and provincial home secretaries.
