Targeted: Two officials shot dead in Shabqadar

The police launched a search operation but no arrests were made as yet.

SHABQADAR: A Peshawar Special Branch official was killed in Mirzai, Shabqadar and a Frontier Constabulary (FC) member was shot dead in main Shabqadar Bazaar.

Battagram Police official Gul Shed Khan said special branch official Muhammad Ashfaq was walking out of a mosque after offering his Isha prayers on Saturday when unidentified men opened fire at him and escaped. He was taken to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar where he succumbed to injuries.

The police launched a search operation but no arrests were made till the filing of this report. Ashfaq’s funeral was held in his native village and was attended by senior members of the police force.

In an unrelated incident, Shabqadar police official Khan Muhammad said FC personnel Bashir Khan was gunned down by his opponent in the main bazaar early Sunday morning. The police has registered an FIR against the alleged suspect, a man identified as Israr, and his companion on the complaint of Bashir’s father, Muhammad Idrees.

In December 2013, a special branch official Rahat Gul was also killed by unidentified assailants in main Shabqadar Bazaar when he left the mosque after Asr prayers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2014.