PTI lawmaker Soran Singh assassinated in Buner

DAGGAR: Unidentified gunmen shot dead Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker and special assistant to the chief minister on minorities’ affairs Sardar Soran Singh in the Pir Baba area of Buner district Friday, eyewitnesses and local sources said.

The sources said the member provincial assembly (MPA) was on his way back home after offering condolences to the family of a deceased person in Kalabat area, falling in the limits of Pir Baba Police Station, when two unidentified gunmen fired at him outside his home located near a Sikh temple. He was critically injured and the locals shifted him to a hospital in Pacha Killay where he succumbed to his injuries.

The body was handed over to his family after autopsy.

The accused managed to flee the scene.

Following the incident, the police and security forces reached the spot and launched a search operation after cordoning off the area. However, no arrest had been made till filing of this report.

Soran Singh was a leading activist of the Sikh community who joined the PTI in 2011. Earlier, he was a member of the Jamaat-i-Islami.

The turbaned and bearded Soran Singh looked distinct in gatherings due to his appearance.

He rose quickly in the party ranks after joining the PTI and was rewarded with a ticket to contest election for a reserved seat of the minorities. Subsequently, he was made special assistant to the chief minister to look after minorities’ affairs.

He left behind a widow, a son and a daughter. The family sources said that they had no enmity with anyone.

His last rites will be held today at 11am in his village, Pir Baba.

KILLING CONDEMNED: Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Iqbal Zafar Jhagra condemned the assassination.

In his condolence message, the governor expressed grief and sorrow over the incident and said the services of the deceased for the minorities would long be remembered. He expressed sympathies with the bereaved family.

Finance Minister Muzaffar Sayyid termed his assassination as an act of terrorism and assured that the culprits would be apprehended soon. He said terrorists wanted to disrupt peace in KP.

Awami National Party (ANP) provincial president and former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti and provincial general secretary Sardar Hussain Babak, Jamaat-i-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq, the party’s provincial chief Mushtaq Ahmad Khan and Senior Provincial Minister for Local Government Inayatullah condemned the killing and expressed sympathies with the bereaved family.