Another victim of Haripur firing dies

HARIPUR: A second person succumbed to injuries in the recent firing case in which Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Malik Tahir Iqbal had been killed, police and family sources said here on Monday.

PTI Deputy General Secretary for Hazara division Malik Tahir Iqbal was on way back home Sunday night in his vehicle after offering fateha for the departed soul of one of his supporters in Kotehra Ghazi village when unknown attackers opened fire at his Parado injuring him, his friend Gul Nawaz and driver Anwar. The locals shifted them to the Tehsil Headquarter Hospital Ghazi where the doctors pronounced the PTI leader Tahir Iqbal dead. His critically injured friend Gul Nawaz was referred to Military Hospital, Tarbela. But he succumbed to injuries late at night. However, Iqbal’s driver suffered minor injuries, the police said.

The Ghazi police registered a double murder case against unknown assailants under terrorism sections and started investigation. Regional Police Officer Qazi Jameelul Rehman, DPO Syed Ashfaq Anwar and SP Investigation Syed Inayat Ali Shah visited the crime scene. They directed the investigation staff to utilise their expertise in tracing and arresting the culprits. Meanwhile, the slain PTI leader was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyards of sector No 1 Khalabat Township Monday evening.

A large number of party workers, lawyers, former councillors and nazims, federal ministers Umar Ayub Khan and Azam Khan Swati, PTI divisional president Ali Asghar Khan, former chief minister KP and Senator Pir Sabir Shah, provincial minister Akbar Ayub, and MPA Arshad Ayub were prominent among those attending the funeral.