'He was shot several times by an assault rifle,' said a police official. PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR/ DAGGAR:
A leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) was gunned down by unidentified militants in Buner district in the early hours of Sunday.
According to Jewar police official Farman Khan, Afzal Khan, the party’s president in Jewar tehsil, was on his way to a marble factory from his house in Charai Kallay at around 7:30am when militants ambushed his car near Jewar Bazaar.
Afzal sustained severe injuries. After the incident, bystanders rushed to help and were trying to move Afzal to a hospital when he succumbed to his injures.
“He was shot several times by an assault rifle,” said Farman, adding the body was later taken to a hospital in Daggar for an autopsy and a case has been filed against unidentified militants.
The official explained the police rushed to the site after the attack and started a search operation in the surrounding areas, however, no one was arrested. Afzal’s family claimed he had no personal enmity with anyone, added Farman.
Afzal is the first senior ANP leader to be targeted in Buner but the party has lost hundreds of its workers and leaders in terrorist attacks over the last several years. In September 2013, a local leader of the party and chief of a pro-government peace militia in Gadizai tehsil of Buner, Anwar Khan, was killed when militants opened fire at him in Balo Khan.
A leader of the Qaumi Watan Party was also killed, along with two others, in the district in a remote controlled explosion in February 2014.
Relatives of slain ANP leader kidnapped
Heavily armed men stormed the house of slain ANP leader Mian Mushtaq in Masho Khel on Peshawar’s outskirts and kidnapped three of his family members on Sunday.
Police confirmed Mushtaq’s cousins were kidnapped from the village in the jurisdiction of Badhaber police station. Unidentified militants also planted four powerful explosive devices in the house and hujra of the slain leader and blew them up, leaving the buildings partially destroyed.
“Around two dozen militants stormed two houses and a hujra, took five people hostage, and took them away,” said an official of the station. “Later one watchman and a relative were released while three remain in the militants’ custody.”
The hostages included Mian Shabir Ahmad, an employee of the Mines and Minerals Department, Mian Shakil Ahmad, an employee of Town 3 and Mian Fahad, a constable in the prison police, he added.
Locals told The Express Tribune they counted around 35 militants who stormed the house at around 1am on Sunday and took the men hostage. The family’s woman and children had already been shifted to Hayatabad after Mushtaq’s killing in January this year. Two of the abducted men are brothers, they added.
“Militants planted powerful bombs which exploded with a loud bang, sending a wave of panic across the village,” said one resident. “Militants forced neighbours to vacate their homes before the explosions to save them from potential injury.”
The police have stopped patrolling in the area for fear of militant attacks and do not visit, Suleman Khel and Masho Khel villages at all, leaving the entire area at the mercy of militants maintained locals. The villages border the Akka Khel, Khyber Agency from where militants have carried out several similar attacks.
After the incident, panicked villagers started firing in the air to scare militants and keep them from returning.
An official of the bomb disposal unit shared that four explosive devices were used and each weighed at least 20 kilogrammes.
ANP’s Mian Mushtaq was killed on January 12, 2014 along with his driver and a friend in Masho Khel village after the car he was travelling in was ambushed by militants.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 21st, 2014.
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