PESHAWAR, Jan 3: To avoid arrest, two police officials, accused of killing a trader in a fake police encounter, escaped from the premises of sessions court, Nowshera, on Wednesday.

An official of the Pabbi police station told Dawn on Thursday that the two officials — an assistant sub-inspector Noor Illahi and a head constable Mahmud Ali — had been absconding and, if found, would be arrested.

The officials are the accused in the killing of a local tea-trader Shah Nawaz in the jurisdiction of Pabbi police station that occurred on Oct 24, 2001. They allegedly had taken away from him Rs60, 000, a cellular phone, a wrist watch and other valuables. They, on their part, claimed that the deceased was killed in an encounter.

The two officials had filed pre-arrest bail applications in the court of additional sessions judge Amanullah Khan Salik. They were granted interim pre-arrest bail and Jan 2 was fixed for its confirmation.

The accused, it is learnt, apprehended that the court would dismiss their application, therefore they withdrew it on Wednesday and silently escaped from the premises of the court.

After withdrawal of their application, the interim bail allowed to them was recalled by the court.

The complainant in the case is Jehandad Khan, a relative of the deceased. Advocate Asadullah Khan Chamkani appeared for the complainant.

The complainant claimed that the two accused were serving in police station Urmar. They crossed the limit of their police station and entered the jurisdiction of Pabbi police station for killing the trader and robbing him of his cash and valuables. For giving legal cover to their crime, they placed the dead body in the limits of their police stations, he claimed.