Khassadars, police exchange fire over arrest of car lifter

PESHAWAR: Due to lack of coordination between the district administration Khyber and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, khassadars and cops exchanged fire at the Karkhano check-post on Saturday over the arrest of a car lifter.

The main Torkham-Peshawar road remained closed for quite some time after khassadars and police took positions against each other. No casualty, however, was reported in the incident. The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP-Operations) Javed IqbalKhan told reporters that police were chasing a car stolen from Islamabad when they were informed the lifter was at the Karkhano checkpost. He added that the ASP Hayatabad talked to the relevant assistant political agent who gave a go-ahead.

Officials said when the police went there to arrest the car-lifter, the khassadar force opened fire on the police.

There were reports that some of the police officials were also taken into custody who were released later.

The exchange of fire between the two forces continued for some time, resulting into the blockade of the Torkham Road.

The embarrassing incident of clash between two local forces has not happened for the first time. There were a number of occasions in the past in which the forces in the erstwhile tribal areas clashed with the local police for the fault of one or the other.