In the crosshairs: Qaumi Watan Party leader gunned down in Buner

BUNER/SWAT:

A member of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) was gunned down by unidentified attackers in Gokan, Buner district Monday morning.

“It seems to be a target killing” said Javed Afsar, an official of Daggar police who is investigating the death of QWP leader Pervaiz Khan.

Afsar said Muhammad Afzal filed a case with the police that his brothers Pervaiz Khan and Ashraf Khan came down from Gokan to the bus stop on Monday with plans to buy a sacrificial animal in the morning. Afzal said four armed men approached the two and opened fire, targeting Pervaiz, killing him on the spot before escaping.

Police official Afsar said the attackers opened fire only on Pervaiz Khan, not his other brother. The brother who survived the attack, Ashraf Khan, identified one of the assailants as Niaz Muhammad, the son of Gulbar Khan.

“I don’t know why he and three other armed men killed my brother, we don’t have any enmity with him” Ashraf told the police.

Daggar official Afsar said the police have blocked all entry and exit routes in a bid to nab the assailants. He added this was not the first time Pervaiz’s family was targeted.

On February 22, Adalat Khan, another brother of the deceased, was killed along with two others when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in Shoga, Buner.

After that incident Adalat’s brother Gohar Khan said his sibling was one of the founders of the committee raised by the government against the Taliban.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2014.