Injured principal dies after fighting for life for 8 days

PESHAWAR: The injured school principal Taj Nabi Khattak passed away in the early hours Monday after fighting for life for about eight days.

He had been critically wounded in an attack by his neighbours in Inzargi village in Katlang, Mardan district on April 28. His young son, Dr Asfandyar Khattak, was shot dead by the three accused in the same incident. Dr Asfandyar Khattak was presently posted in Mansehra.

He is survived by a young widow, who is a lady doctor hailing from Lasbela, Balochistan, and a one-year old son.

Taj Nabi Khattak, principal of Government Higher Secondary School in Hayaseri village in Lower Dir district, was admitted at the Mardan Medical Complex where he was operated and kept at the intensive care unit. The police said he was later shifted to Islamabad for treatment at the Shifa Hospital.

His body was brought to his village for burial Monday morning. His Namaz-i-Janaza held at the Government Type D Hospital in Inzargi Katlang was attended by a large number of people. Moving scenes were witnessed when his funeral was taken out from his house and lowered in the grave as the family lost both the father and son.

According to the police, the incident happened due to a dispute between the two families over the flowing of drainage water from a mosque built by Taj Nabi Khattak as the accused family was angry that the water was entering their fields. The dispute claimed two precious lives, both highly educated.

The Mardan Police after hectic efforts arrested the two main accused, Musharraf Khan and his brother Ali Zar Khan aka Zaray, within 72 hours after the incident. They were traced in another district and nabbed from a house past midnight. A 30-bore pistol used by Ali Zar Khan to fire at the victims was also recovered.

The policemen, led by DSP Katlang, Qazi Asmatullah, were confident that the third accused, Hazrat Ali, who is son of the already nabbed Musharraf Khan, would also be apprehended soon.