PESHAWAR: A senior military officer was gunned down in Hayatabad Township here on Sunday.

According to police, motorcyclists wearing masks opened fire at Col Mohammad Tahir Azeem when he came out of a mosque in the busy Abaseen Market.

A police official at the Hayatabad police station told Dawn that Col Azeem, a resident of Kaga Wala village of Badbher in the outskirts of Peshawar, was associated with the combatant support signal (Rawalpindi) unit. He had come to the city to attend his sister’s wedding.

Having suffered serious injuries, he was taken to the Hayatabad Medical Complex but could not survive.

The police official said Col Azeem’s two brothers, Waqas and Shakeel, also had been killed in Peshawar, in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and the motive behind the murders was yet to be ascertained. The official said that Col Azeem’s murder appeared to be a target killing because there was no evidence that he had any personal enmity with anyone.

A heavy contingent of police and other security personnel cordoned off the area after the incident to look for the killers. They checked motorcycles and vehicles at entry and exit points of the township. But no arrest was made till late night.

NATIONAL ACTION PLAN: Meanwhile, police rounded up 99 suspects and seized a large quantity of arms and ammunition during operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday and Sunday under the National Action Plan.

According to a police spokesman, 71 houses and 144 hotels were raided and 34 Afghan nationals taken into custody for their failure to produce valid documents for stay in Pakistan.

They have been booked under 14 Foreign Act and will be before a court on Monday to seek their deportation.'

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2015

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