Two Excise officials, driver martyred in attack

PESHAWAR/ NOWSHERA: Two Excise Police officials and a private driver were martyred while a sub inspector was wounded when unidentified assailants opened fire on mobile squad on the Grand Trunk Road in the wee hours of Sunday.

Sub-Inspector Muhammad Farooq, son of Bahadur Khan, a resident of Sharifabad, Mardan, got registered the report in an injured condition.

He stated he, along with Excise Police Constables Mujahid, son of Khurshid, a resident of Lund Khwar in Mardan, Iftikhar, son of Mera Khan, a resident of Anbar in Swabi, and private driver, Shabbir, son of Bashir, a resident of Attock Khurd, was patrolling in a Honda Civic as part of the Excise Intelligence Bureau Squad from Peshawar to Nowshera on the GT Road near the fruit market.

They received a tip-off that some unidentified individuals were smuggling drugs to Punjab in a white Toyota Revo double-cabin vehicle with black number plates.

While chasing the suspicious vehicle, they caught up with it near the Taru bus stop and signaled it to stop. As soon as the vehicle stopped, the unidentified occupants opened fire on the squad with automatic weapons.

Sub-Inspector Farooq said as a result of the gunfire, Excise Constables Mujahid and Iftikhar, along with private driver Shabbir, were martyred on the spot, while he was critically injured.

The squad vehicle also sustained significant damage in the attack. The assailants fled the scene toward Nowshera after committing the crime.

The Counter-Terrorism Department registered a case based on the statement of the injured sub-inspector under sections 302, 324, and 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, and launched an investigation.

The funeral prayers for the martyrs were offered with full official honors at the Police Lines in Peshawar.

Inspector General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Zulfiqar Hameed, Director General Excise Abdul Haleem Khan, Capital City Police Officer of Peshawar Ali Khan, Secretary Local Government Dr Ambar Khan, SSP Operations Masood Bangash, and other officials from the Police and Excise departments attended the ceremony.

KP governor Faisal Karim Kundi, Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah and others took notice of the incident and directed the relevant officials to submit a report on the incident.

Meanwhile, a religious scholar Qari Shahid, who was wounded in a targeted attack last week in Naway Killay, lost his battle for life at a hospital.

He and another religious scholar, Maulana Ijaz, were shot on the same night in the limits of Pishtakhara Police Station in the Peshawar district during an apparent target killing wave.