Eight alleged hired assassins arrested

SWABI: The police on Friday claimed to have arrested eight alleged hired assassins in the district.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, District Police Officer Imran Shahid said that on March 17, Muhammad Iqbal, brother of a known lawyer Mustafa Kamal, was killed and his nephew Munawar Iqbal injured when a group of contract killers opened fire on them in Zaida area. Mustafa belongs to Kaddi village. “Mustafa has an enmity with Abdul Aziz who lives in Singapore but hired the contract killers in different intervals since 2016. And so far he has killed six people and injured seven more of Mustafa’s family,” he added.

The enmity had started when a son of Abdul Aziz was killed during a clash with Mustafa’s family years ago. “We have arrested four members of the group belonging to Kotha village, three to Topi city and one Afghan national who used to lead the contact killers gang. The Afghan national is identified as Sher Muhammad and his family lives in Topi city,” he added. “We have recovered Rs0.5 million given to the contract killers, a Kalashnikov, two pistols and motorcycles. We are further investigating the issue,” he added.