JUI-F local leader gunned down in Hangu

HANGU:

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) local leader Maulana Sher Alam Farooqi was gunned down Sunday morning in Doaba Tehsil of Hangu in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa (K-P).

Maulana Farooqi, who was JUI-F’s district Naib Ameer, was en route to his seminary Darul Huda in the Tora Ghundai area of the tehsil when gunmen riding on motorcycles opened fire at his vehicle, according to the SHO of Doaba police station, Amirullah.

“Farooqi died on the spot while his guard was critically injured and was later rushed to the hospital by local residents,” Amirullah said, adding that the gunmen managed to flee unchallenged and unidentified.

The SHO said that the police have sealed all entry and exit routes of the region and mounted a manhunt for the alleged killers. However, no arrest was made till the filing of this report.

Amirullah said that it was the second attack on Farooqi. “He had escaped another targeted attack in the past,” he added.  Farooqi was a close friend of the JUI-F incumbent MPA from the area, Mufti Syed Janan. During the 2013 elections a bomb blast in the campaign rally of Mufit Syed Janan had killed around eight people.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2014.