PESHAWAR/MARDAN, March 18: A watchman was killed and two people were injured in attacks on video shops in Peshawar and Mardan on Sunday morning.
In Peshawar, an explosive device went off in a video market, damaging three shops.
“An unidentified man had left a plastic bag with the watchman of the Gulshan CD Market on the Kohat Road and said he would collect it after offering morning prayers in the nearby mosque,” said an official of the Bhana Mari police station.
He said the watchman, Shaukat, decided to check the bag when the man did not turn up after the prayers. As he touched the bag with his foot, it exploded, injuring him and a passerby.
The official said owners of CD and music shops had been receiving threats from unknown people, asking them to close down their “un-Islamic” business.
Police registered a case under the Explosive Substance Act.
In Bakhshali, about 13 kilometres from Mardan, a man shot dead a watchman and blew up a video shop, police said.
Residents said a man caught attention of watchman Darwaish when he was placing a bundle outside a video shop in a market. The suspect fired on the watchman, killing him on the spot.
As the man fled, the bundle placed outside the shop went off.
Meanwhile, a man was killed and his wife and a minor daughter were injured when a hand-grenade was hurled into their house in the Garhi Daulatzai area of Mardan on Sunday morning.
Police said Zahir Dad and his family members were asleep when some people threw the hand-grenade into the house. Zahir Dad died and his wife Shamim Begum and a daughter were injured.
The injured were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital.
Shamim Begum told police that her husband had no personal enmity.
