Targeted attack: Doctor gunned down in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: An anaesthesia specialist working at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Dr Arshad Khan, was gunned down by unknown assailants in Gulberg area of the provincial capital on Monday afternoon.

Dr Khan, 57, was on his way home when attackers opened fire at him, killing him on the spot. “The victim hailed from DI Khan and had no enmity with anyone. The matter is not sectarian either,” said an official of local police station, adding that an FIR has been registered and they were investigating the matter.

The doctors in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) have been on strike after many doctors have been kidnapped and the rest are receiving threats to pay extortion. Doctor Amid Taqweem, the head of the Medical C ward at LRH, was kidnapped on December 3.

A spate of violence against medical practitioners is going on in K-P’s provincial capital, while many specialist doctors have planned to leave the city if the threats to their lives do not subside.