Unfortunate journey: Six of a family shot dead in Swabi

Three killed in shoot-out in Kalu Khan village in separate incident.

SWABI:

As many as nine people lost their lives to disputes in two separate incidents in Yar Hussain and Kalu Khan areas of Swabi on Friday.

In the first incident, unidentified people opened fire at a pickup carrying a family to the Peshawar airport, killing six people and injuring eight.

District Police Officer Sajjad Khan told reporters the family was accompanying their relative Adnan, a resident of Yar Hussain village, to Bacha Khan International Airport for a flight to Saudi Arabia. Around 12:45am, when the pickup reached Gulabad Canal, unidentified people opened fire at the vehicle, killing five members of the family on the spot, said Sajjad. The assailants escaped under the cover of darkness.

According to Yar Hussain police station SHO Ijaz Khan, the five people who died on the spot were identified as Adnan, Zeeshan, Ayaz, Anis and Shahab Ali, while the eight injured included driver Razi Khan and Adnan’s sister Musarrat Bibi and his father.

Locals shifted four critically injured victims to Lady Reading Hospital, while four were taken Mardan Medical Complex.

An injured person identified as Nasir later succumbed to his injuries.

Officials of Yar Hussain police station said evidence had been collected from the site of the attack and a search for the culprits was under way. However, they presumed the family might have been gunned down because of a dispute with another family.

In the morning, residents of Yar Hussain held a protest by putting the bodies on Yar Hussain-Mardan Road near Adina Pul. They demanded immediate arrest of the culprits.

DPO Sajjad visited the protesters and told them a four-member investigation team had been formed to probe the incident and instructed to report to him within 48 hours.

Later, the deceased were buried in the local graveyard. Local political leaders and hundreds of people attended the funeral.

Separately, three people were killed in a shoot-out between two rival groups in Kalu Khan village.

According to police official Haroon Khan, Qasim filed a case with the police stating brothers Fawad, Naveed and Ali Bahadur opened fire at his brother Ishaq at around 11:15am, killing him on the spot.

However, Ali Bahadur also filed a case with the police stating Qasim and Riaz shot at his brothers and killed Naveed and Fawad.

Police arrested Bahadur, Riaz and Qasim from both groups. Two AK-47s, three pistols and several rounds of bullets were seized from them. Police official Haroon said initial investigation revealed Ishaq was engaged to a girl named Tanzeela, however, Fawad and Naveed had been threatening him to leave her because one of them wanted to marry her.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2014.