PESHAWAR: An unknown assailant shot dead a traffic police official while he was on duty near Marchako Mandi area in Peshawar city on Thursday.

An official of Faqirabad police station said that ASI Mohammad Fayaz was on a routine duty when an unidentified armed man opened fire on him with a pistol. He breathed his last on way to the Lady Reading Hospital. The official said that the ASI had no enmity and seemed to have been attacked by a target killer. The attacker, he said, was alone and on foot.

“We have cordoned off all the entry and exit points to check motorcycles and other vehicles, but so far could not arrest the attacker,” he said.

A police spokesman said that the official belonged to Taru Jabba area of Nowshera. His funeral prayer was offered at Malik Saad Khan Police Lines and his body was shifted for burial to his ancestral town. Mr Fayaz is the third official of the traffic police in Peshawar who was killed on duty. Two other officials had been killed some months ago, but the attackers were yet to be apprehended. A case has been registered against an unknown terrorist.

Meanwhile, in order to put a halt to the menace of terrorism and other heinous crimes the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have devised a systematic and professional approach to apprehend criminals through introduction of Criminal Verification System.

According to a statement issued here on Thursday, the police force has completed the process of the digitalisation of 823,476 FIRs in the province. In this connection, the Peshawar district showed good performance by digitalising 142,955 FIRs, followed by Mardan with 75,278 FIRs, Lower Dir 59,125, Swat 58,600, Charsadda 52,828, Swabi 41,838, DI Khan 32,993, Buner 31,136, Abbottabad 39,933, Kohat 39,039, Nowshera 37,180, Mansehra 37,535, Bannu 28,863, Haripur 27,410, Chitral 19,506, Lakki Marwat 17,363, Upper Dir 16,828, Karak 15,540, Hangu 14,022, Shangla 10,339, Battagram 9,701, Tank 7,649, Kohistan Upper 3,862, Kohistan Lower 3,583 and Torghar 370.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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