Targeted attack: Ruling party’s leader gunned down at Jalozai camp

Four other activists were injured when assailants opened fire at the party office.

PABBI:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) president for Jalozai camp, Haji Mula Khel, was killed and four other party activists were injured after unidentified militants opened fire at them on Friday.

A tribal elder of Qamber Khel, Haji was also PTI’s secretary for Bara welfare. He belonged to Bara himself and was living at Jalozai camp for internally displaced persons (IDP).

Militants opened fire at the PTI office on the camp premises around 10am, said Pabbi police official Maqsood Khan.

Shah Mehmood, one of the injured, told the police he along with Gulistan, Abdul Jalal and Shah Jahan were visiting the office to meet Haji and get some documents signed when two men parked a motorcycle outside the office and started shooting.

Haji was killed on the spot, while the accused managed to escape. Following the incident, the police rushed to the site, but locals had shifted the body and the injured to Rashid Shaheed Memorial Hospital. Mehmood told the police they had no enemies.

PTI Khyber Agency President Iqbal Afridi condemned the attack. He said Haji represented Mohmand, Khyber and Bajaur IDPs at Jalozai and had dedicated his life for them. “He had established a party office on Cherat Road that remained open every day. People would come there to discuss their problems with him,” Afridi added.

Afridi stated the attack was not aimed at Haji alone, but targeted the PTI.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan strongly condemned the attack on party workers and directed the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government to probe the killing and bring the culprits to justice.

Earlier on August 21, former town nazim of Jehangira and PTI leader Mumlikat Khan was gunned down by unidentified assailants in Nowshera.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2013.