ABBOTTABAD/KALAYA: A gunman killed an unidentified man in a hotel in Haripur and later shot dead a traffic police constable who gave him chase after the hotel incident on Wednesday, while two labourers were killed in a coalmine blast in Orakzai Agency.

Officials said that the constable identified as Khurram Sadiq belonged to Abbottabad and was deputed in Haripur at a polling station of NA-19 where re-election was underway at some polling stations.

They said that the gunman was trying to escape on a motorcycle at Chandni Chowk in Khalabat, Haripur, after killing a man in a hotel when the constable spotted and ran after him.

The identity of the man killed in the hotel could not be ascertained till filing of this report.

Khalabat police registered the case and have started investigation.

The funeral of constable Khurram Sadiq was held at the police lines in Abbottabad, which was attended by DIG Hazara, DPO, government officials and people from various walks of life.

He was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard at Mor Kalan, Abbottabad, with official honour.

In lower Orakzai Agency, two miners were killed and five others injured when the explosives they were planting in a coalmine went off on Wednesday.

The labourers were planting the explosives at a coalmine in Dolai area of Orakzai Agency when the explosion occurred. As a result, two workers were killed on the spot while five others sustained injuries.

The injured were taken to a local hospital where two of them, including Latifullah and Osman, were referred to Peshawar in critical condition.

The dead were identified as Syed Rehman and Niamat while the other three injured as Sardar Hussain, Khialzada and Rehmatullah. All the miners belonged to the Shangla district.

The coalmine was the property of Abul Hassan coal company and its area manager Roshan Khattak reached the spot along with a rescue team and retrieved the bodies and injured workers from the mine.

The political administration registered the case.

Sources said that majority of the coalmines in Orakzai Agency had poor safety arrangements for the workers.

According to residents, there are about 4,000 coalmines in Orakzai Agency and about 3,000 miners, most of them from Shangla district, work there to earn livelihood.