MARDAN: Mardan police on Thursday shot dead a deaf person after he failed to stop on the police officers’ directions near the city’s judicial complex.

The deceased was identified as Wolas Mir, a resident of Shireen Kotha area of Nowshera. Mir was a vendor who used to sell clothes on his bicycle.

The incident took place at a police checkpost near the judicial complex, which came under attack on Sept 2, 2016 when a suicide bomber detonated explosives, leaving at least 16 persons dead. DSP Mardan city Shah Mumtaz Khan told media persons that the man entered a lane of the road passing in front of the judicial complex, which had been closed to traffic for over two weeks.

“He proceeded with his bicycle on the closed portion of the road ignoring the police directions to stop,” he said, adding that it forced the police to use force to stop him.

Absar Khan, Mir’s brother-in-law, told Dawn that he (Mir) was father of 12 children and for over a decade he used to sell clothes on his bicycle. He said that Mir was hearing impaired and even people loudly told policemen against shooting him. He said that the police first knocked him down with an armoured personnel carrier and then shot him six times in the chest.

He said that the Mardan police though registered an FIR after a public protest, it was too vague. “Instead of directly charging the cops who shot Mir dead, the police officers instead promised to hold an inquiry into the incident,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2017