MANSEHRA, March 27: A young man, his wife and his sister were shot dead in Jabory area on Tuesday while a jirga was in session to rule on the couple’s marriage of free will.

Shinkiary police said that Kamran and Samara had recently tied the knot on their own, infuriating the family of Samara, which took it to be an affront to its honour.

Police claimed the family called a jirga to settle the ‘dispute’.

Ghulam Fareed, father of Kamran, registered an FIR with the police, stating that the jirga was in progress when Ijaz Khan, father of Samara, and his sons Ibrar, Badar and Sajjad opened fire on Kamran, his wife Samara and sister Sabiha, leaving all three dead.

Mr Fareed, who belongs to Haripur, alleged that the rival party had hatched conspiracy to kill his son, daughter and daughter-in-law by calling them to their village on the pretext of the jirga. He said that following the incident the jirga members fled to escape the attack.

The bodies were handed over to relatives after autopsies at the civil hospital, Shinkiary. The police have started investigation.

POWER OUTAGES: Hundreds of traders blocked the Karakoram Highway to protest against the prolonged loadshedding in Mansehra and its suburbs.

The traders blocked the KKH at Thakra and raised slogans against the Peshawar Electric Supply Company for resorting to over 16 hours daily loadshedding.

Speaking on the occasion, Mohammad Sajid and other traders said that the prolonged power outages had been badly affecting their businesses for the last many days.

“If the current spate of loadshedding continued we would not even be able to feed our children,” said Mr Sajid. The protesting traders challenged the government to end loadshedding to prove its performance. The protesters later dispersed peacefully.

SEALED: The Mansehra district administration has sealed three medical stores here for their alleged involvement in sale of spurious drugs.

District coordination officer Amber Ali and officials of the health department checked medicines at several medical stores and sealed three of them for allegedly selling spurious medicines.