PESHAWAR: Unidentified armed persons shot dead a trader in Akhtunabad area while an improvised explosive device was defused in Shad Bagh Colony here on Wednesday.

An official of Pando police station said that the killed trader was identified as Syed Athar Abbas Zaidi, a resident of Kochi Bazaar. He was on way to his home when unidentified gunmen targeted him with a pistol, he added.

Quoting Syed Asghar Ali Shah, a relative of the deceased, the official said that the trader was injured in the attack and succumbed to his injuries in Lady Reading Hospital.

“He was a businessman and had no enmity,” the complainant said. He added that the attackers would be nominated in the case whenever a clue was found in that regard.

Police also foiled a sabotage bid by defusing an improvised explosive device (IED) planted outside a house at Shad Bagh Colony.

An official of Yakatoot police station said that the device was planted outside residence of Daud Khan, who worked abroad. He said that the device was packed in a ghee canister but personnel of bomb disposal unit defused it timely.

AIG Shafqat Malik said that the explosive weighed about two kilograms. A case against unidentified terrorists was registered at Yakatoot police station.

ARMS SEIZED: Police seized a cache of arms and ammunitions and arrested an alleged smuggler and impounded a motorcar in Mattani area.

Police said that they stopped a motorcar, coming from tribal area to Peshawar city, and recovered eight Kalashnikovs, 80 pistols, two repeaters and 4,600 cartridges from its secret cavities.

Police said that an arms smuggler Irshad, a resident of Jhagra, was arrested on the spot while his two accomplices managed to escape.

Meanwhile, several suspected persons were arrested in the limits of Khan Raziq police station.

Sources said that names of the arrested persons could not be ascertained. They were travelling in a motorcar having registration number of Islamabad and police took them into custody for interrogation, they added.