PESHAWAR, March 27: Unidentified persons shot dead a government official and injured his son here on Wednesday morning.

Family sources said that Sub-divisional Officer Khwaja Imran left his house in Gulberg area for his office at Municipal Corporation Peshawar when the assailants attacked him. He was accompanied by his son Raza Ali, who was going to appear in the matriculation examination.

According Khwaja Rizwan, a brother of the deceased, both his brother and nephew were injured in the attack. “We shifted them to Lady Reading Hospital but my brother succumbed to his injuries while his son was operated upon and seemed to be stable,” he said.

He said that they didn’t receive threats from anyone. The attackers were unidentified, he added.

Hamdullah Khan, an investigation officer at Gulberg police station, said that the attackers were on foot and armed with pistols. “We talked to Ali Raza, who said that the attackers were two and on foot,” he added.

The official said that it might be sectarian issue but he could not say something with certainty for the time being unless solid evidences were collected in that regard.

An official of the investigation department said that since November 2012 at least 10 persons had been killed in Peshawar apparently in sectarian violence but police were yet to get any clue about the killers. The victims belonged to Shia community.

When asked about a suo moto notice taken by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan of the sectarian killings, the official said that police arrested some people to satisfy the court and then released them.

TRIBESMAN KILLED: A tribesman was shot dead and a taxi driver injured in an attack at Dabgari area here on Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Hassan Khan, a resident of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency.

Samin Gul, the injured taxi driver, told police that he did not know the tribesman but he hired his taxi for Hayatabad. As he sat in the vehicle, two men armed with pistols opened firing on him, he added.

Meanwhile, an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded outside the residence of Mohammad Akbar Khan Safi, the district general secretary of Pakistan People’s Party and candidate for PK-I Peshawar-I, on Shami Road.

It was a time device, which weighed about one kilogram, said an official of bomb disposal squad. The blast damaged the boundary wall of the house.

The blast also caused damage to the windowpanes of the nearby houses.