Bandits kidnap 7 policemen in Pakistan

Bandits have attacked a police checkpoint and kidnapped seven policemen in central Pakistan, officials said on Sunday.

The incident happened Saturday night in the Much area of Sadiqabad in Punjab province.

“Around 40 dacoits attacked the checkpost and kidnapped seven police officials,” the district police chief, Sohail Zafar Chattha, told AFP.

He said law enforcement agencies had driven bandits out of the area a few years ago but they started operating again recently, shuttling between Much and the border towns of neighbouring Sindh province.

The outlaws recently killed a police officer in the town of Ghotki in Sindh.

A strong police contingent backed by armoured personnel carriers was mounting an operation to rescue the seven policemen, Chattha added.

Bandits have been active in the border areas of Sindh and Punjab provinces for decades.

The military launched a full-scale operation against them in Sindh in the early 1990s but they resurfaced after successive governments failed to maintain law and order in the province.