Residents stage protest against lawlessness

PARACHINAR: Hundreds of people placed the bodies of the three men, two of them shot dead by rivals and one by an enraged mob in Sadda Bazaar, on the road on Sunday to protest the killing and taking the law into their own hands.

Speaking to protest sit-in, the speakers, including Turi-Bangash tribes’ elders Haji Sardar Hussain, Abid Hussain, Jalal Hussain, Malik Zahoor Jan and others, said that killing of two persons over personal enmity in Kurram district and then killing of Zeenat Ali, a retired subedar of the Frontier Corps by a mob in Pir Qayyum area, was deplorable and unacceptable. They said that killing innocent people and taking law into their own hands was a dangerous trend, which must be stopped forthwith by the law enforcing agencies. They said that the two persons were killed by their rivals over personal enmity but later a protesting mob of people killed an FC retired personnel in Sadda Bazaar in retaliation, painting the previous incident as religious rivalry.

District Police Officer Muhammad Quresh Khan also spoke to the protesters and said that they would establish writ of law at all costs.

After the assurance of DPO, the protesters ended their protest sit-in and dispersed peacefully. Police sources said that two persons were shot dead by their rivals in Kurram district. Later, people in Sadda Bazaar placed the bodies on the main Peshawar road to protest the killings. At the same time, an enraged mob killed a retired FC Subedar Zeenat Ali in Pir Qayyum area, apparently giving a religious colour to the previous incident. The mother of Zeenat Ali also died due to cardiac arrest when she came to know about the killing of her son.