PESHAWAR: Unidentified armed persons shot dead a policeman near Ring Road here on Monday morning when he was going to police lines from his home.

An official of Yakatoot police station said that head constable Nigar Ali, a resident of Hazarkhwani, was on way from his home to police lines when two men armed with 9MM pistols targeted him from a close range. He was also armed with pistol but the attackers, who were already waiting for him, did not give him a chance to pull it, he added.

The official said that Nigar Ali received several bullets mostly in his head. He died on the spot, he added.

Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Mohammad Khurasani in his statement emailed to journalists claimed responsibility for killing the policeman.

“We have started search operation in different areas but no one has so far been arrested,” a police official said. The relatives of the deceased said that he had never talked about any threat to his life and the incident took place all of a sudden. He was the second policeman killed during this week as another head constable Hashmat Ali was shot dead inside Peshawar Judicial Complex on June 25.

The funeral prayers of Nigar Ali were offered at Malik Saad Khan Police Lines. The body was later handed over to his relatives for burial.

Meanwhile, SSP Dr Mian Saeed told journalists that the two persons, involved in the murder of four sisters, were arrested during a raid on a house in Matani area on Monday. He said that Fazal Qadir and Fazal Hussain had killed four sisters at Kachi Mohallah in the limits of Hashtnagri police station on June 27 and managed to escape after committing the crime.

The SSP said that the suspects had taken shelter in the house of Ziauddin and opened firing on the police when they reached there. Police also impounded a motorcar and arrested its driver Ibrahim on the occasion.

The arrested persons were shifted to Yakatoot police station for interrogation. Case against them was already registered at Hashtnagri police station.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2015

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