Police gun down deaf cyclist in Mardan

MARDAN: Police on Thursday shot dead a deaf vendor it had mistaken for a suicide bomber in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) Mardan district.

The vendor riding a cycle did not respond to police calls to stop at a judicial complex check post, Deputy Superintendent Police (DSP) Mumtaz Khan told journalists.

The deceased, identified as Olas Khan, was taken to Mardan medical complex where he succumbed to his injuries.

According to local people, the vendor was deaf and had been selling clothes in the area for the last 15 years to run his household. He was taken to Sheeran Khota where he will be buried.

Locals protested outside the Mardan Press Club and raised slogans against, what they called, police brutality, demanding that a case of murder be registered against the responsible personnel.

When the bomb disposal squad officials checked the bike’s carrier, they found nothing except bundles of clothes that the vendor was selling in the district, the DSP added.

On February 3, a 27-year-old man was shot dead by police firing in Islamabad after he allegedly did not stop when a police official signalled him to.

Police and other law enforcement agencies have been on high alert since the recent wave of terrorism in the country that claimed more than 100 lives.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2017.