PESHAWAR, Aug 19: Awami National Party leader MPA Abbas Khalil Khattak and his four aides were arrested on Friday on charges of killing four people in election-related violence in Akora Khattak town of Nowshera district.

Official sources said that angry residents of Akora Khattak ended their 18-hour long roadblock protest on the Grand Trunk Road on Friday afternoon after their arrest.

Four persons were killed and six injured, three of them seriously, when supporters of a candidate, who had lost the elections for Nazim’s post, allegedly opened fire on the winning candidate and his companions in Akora Khattak on Thursday night.

Two persons were killed on the spot and two other succumbed to their injuries at the District Headquarters Hospital, Nowshera where they were brought in serious condition along with six others, officials confirmed.

Enraged by the incident, the protesters blocked the GT Road late on Thursday night set old tyres on fire. The angry protesters also damaged several vehicles when drivers tried to move ahead.

The violence in Akora Khattak started when the supporters of former union council’s Nazim Sayed Zulfiqar Bacha staged a rally to celebrate his victory in the local government elections on Thursday night.

When the rally was passing through the residences of ANP leader MPA Khalil Abbas and former provincial minister Jan Mohammad Khattak near the shrine of Akund Din Baba, some unidentified persons opened indiscriminate fire.

As a result two persons, Tajammal son of Dr Fakhrud Din and Asif son of Taj Mohammad, died on the spot. Eight persons were rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital in Nowshera. Later Rahil and Wahid succumbed to their injuries.

Nazim-elect Sayed Zulfiqar Bacha in his FIR registered with Akora Khattak police station nominated MPA Khalil Abbas Khattak, Niaz Ali, Wali Khan, Faiq Ali, Abdul Majid, Mohammad Naseem and Imran Habib.

The police on Friday morning arrested Abdul Majid and Mohammad Naseem and sealed the commercial buildings owned by MPA Abbas Khalil, Jan Mohammad Khattak and their brothers.

Later, MPA Abbas Khalil, Wali Khan and Faiq Ali also surrendered to police on Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, MPA Abbas Khalil refuted the charges of his involvement in the killings of four persons.

Talking to journalists before surrendering to police in Nowshera, he claimed that his political rivals deliberately involved him in the case. He added that one of the person nominated in the FIR was 80 years old.