PESHAWAR: Unidentified armed men on Wednesday shot dead a police constable while he was working in his agriculture fields at Wadpaga village on the outskirts of Peshawar.

An official of Chamkani police station said that the family of the deceased, Syed Rashid Ali Shah, didn’t nominate anyone in the case, saying that they had no enmity with anyone.

Another official of the rural circle police said that the constable belonged to Shia community and had been assigned duty at Wadpaga Imambargah.

A case against unidentified persons was registered at Chamkani police station.

Meanwhile, a police spokesman said that during a search and strike operation in the area, 63 suspected persons, 16 of them Afghan nationals, had been arrested. He said that the Afghans were living in the country without having legal documents.

He said that the police also recovered three Kalashnikovs, 16 pistols and two rifles from the arrested persons, and registered cases against them. The police spokesman said that Afghans would be deported to their country after producing them before the court today (Thursday).

Meanwhile, a passenger bus caught fire as result of a cylinder blast inside it near Qila Bala-i- Hisar on Wednesday. A Rescue Service 1122 spokesman said there was no report about any loss of life or injury in the incident.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2014