GHOTKI: Ten US-trained snipers have been deployed in Sindh’s katcha for a three-month-long ongoing police operation against dacoits who killed five policemen in a gunfight in November.

The Sindh Police’s Special Security Unit (SSU) is usually reserved for VIPS like the chief minister or prime minister but the police requested for SSU snipers for the operation again bandits in Ghotki.

The dacoits from the riverain region have outsmarted the police by not only using modern weapons but also harnessing social media to trap their victims.

They have been using social media to lure and kidnap victims people from Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab, and KP, by promising them cheap cars, offers of marriage, livestock trade, Canadian visas, and Umrah and Hajj tickets, SSP Tanveer Tuni said.

The unsuspecting buyers are not released until the ransom is paid.

Action against dacoits is difficult due to their use of sophisticated and longer-range weapons.

Police officials believe snipers remain the only option on the table.

“The robbers have foreign and modern weapons which the police do not have,” SSP Tanveer Tuni said.

“The police are still buying heavy weapons. The dacoits have also blown up some armored police vehicles.”

Armored vehicles from Taxila will soon reach Ghotki as reinforcements, he said.

The police sniper guns have a 2 to 2.5km range, SSP Tuni said.

Weapons worth Rs280 billion are being purchased to deal with katcha bandits.

“I believe that the new equipment, including drones and automatic weapons will be a game-changer in the fight against dacoits,” SSP Tuni said.

The operation is being conducted in the Raonti area that borders Punjab’s Rahim Yar Khan.

Stopping dacoits from using social media platforms has also proved a challenged.

SSP Tuni said that if the police cut off the internet for the area, cell phone coverage along the M-5 Motorway and nearby villages will be affected.

Up to 50 officers have been deployed in the katcha area.

Five kidnapping for ransom victims have been rescued by the police.

They belonged to Pishin, Quetta, Hyderabad, Kashmore, and Rajanpur.

The police have set the hideouts in the katcha on fire.

On Tuesday, many robbers were injured in the exchange of fire that lasted for almost eight hours.

The operation had to be halted when the area was covered with dense fog.