March 01, 2008	Saturday	Safar 22, 1429

LANDI KOTAL, Feb 29: Three persons were killed and two others sustained injuries when rival groups exchange heavy gunfire in an alleged kidnapping attempt of a tribal elder in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency on Friday.

Sources said that dozens of armed activists of Lashkar-i-Islam chased the vehicle of Malik Guli Shah Kukikhel when he was on his way to attend a wedding ceremony at Shah Kas. The armed guards of Guli Shah resisted the kidnapping attempt and resorted to firing. Malik Guli Shah in the meantime was able to take shelter in a nearby Hujra (male guesthouse) of another tribal elder Muhammad Ali.

The Lashkar men retaliated with heavy gunfire, which lasted for at least one hour. Sources said that in the cross firing in which heavy weapons were used, Malik Guli Shah’s driver Samin Khan and two pedestrians Khitab Gul and Alif Khan lost their lives, while two other passers-by sustained bullet injuries. The injured were later rushed to a hospital.

The enraged Lashkar activists then set four vehicles ablaze including two Surf jeeps, a Corolla and a Honda car and took along with them three other vehicles and two motorbikes from the venue of the wedding. A portion of the Hujra where Guli Shah took refuge was also damaged due to use of heavy weaponry.

Later, in retaliation some Zakhakhel youth, whose vehicles were damaged in the incident, fired rockets at a Khasadar checkpoint at Ziyarhai, which caused damage to two tents nearby. The protesting crowd then blocked the main Peshawar-Torkhum Road at Walikhel area in Landi Kotal tehsil and warned that the road would remain closed till they were not compensated for the damage to their vehicles.

They also demanded of the agency’s political administration to arrest the Lashkar activists involved in the alleged kidnapping attempt and snatching and damaging their vehicles.