A Sikh shopkeeper was shot dead in what appears to be yet another targeted attack on the outskirts of Peshawar on Friday.
Police told The Express Tribune that Diyal Singh, who had a general store in Ghari Atta Muhammad, Dir Colony Road on the outskirts of Peshawar was shot dead by unidentified bike riders who managed to escape after committing the crime.
Police reached the site of the attack and inspected the crime scene. Empty shells of TT pistols have been found from the site of the attack and CCTV footage of the incident is also being obtained, said a police official.
The attack at the Sikh trader caused widespread panic among the locals and Sikh community as in the recent past, many Sikh shopkeepers have been killed in Peshawar, Charsadda, Khyber and other districts by terrorists.
In May last year two Sikh traders Kanwaljeet and Ranjit were gunned down on Bara Road on the outskirts of Peshawar.
An AK-47 rifle had been used in the daring attack.
They were resident of Jogan Shah Mohalla – a Sikh neighbourhood in Peshawar where their families had moved in 2009 after fleeing unrest in the Tirah Valley of Khyber tribal district.
In September 2021, a Sikh herbalist Satnam Singh was shot dead on Charsadda Road in the provincial capital.
Banned militant outfit Islamic State group’s Khorasan chapter (IS-K) had claimed responsibility for the attack. The police claimed in Dec last year to have killed three IS-K commanders in the city insisting the militants were involved in the murder of the Sikh hakeem and other attacks.
On the other hand, a prayer leader in Mardan district of K-P was killed when a team of Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) tried to arrest him and he opened fire on a CTD constable, killing him on the spot. In the subsequent fire, he himself was killed.
Police said that a CTD team raided a mosque on a tip-off to arrest the accused Maulvi Fawad who was sleeping in his room on the first floor of the mosque in the Jehangirabad area of Takhatbai, Mardan.
“When Qari Fawad saw police, he opened fire, killing Constable Osman Khan on the spot and tried to run away but was killed in the return fire by police,” said an official.
“Qari Fawad was wanted to police in many terrorism cases and he was linked with ISIS-Khurasan,” he said, adding that basically Fawad was a resident of Bakhshali Mardan but he worked as prayer leader in Jehangirabad.
“In the past he was arrested several times but later released,” he added.
Attacks at police have intensified since the fall of Kabul to Taliban in 2021 after the US withdrawal from the war-torn country.
On Saturday, four policemen including a DSP of Lakki Marwat police were martyred when their vehicle was blown in a roadside bomb blast by terrorists.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 1st, 2023.
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