HARIPUR: Unknown gunmen shot dead a senior Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader, Malik Tahir Iqbal, here on Sunday evening, police and family sources said.

They said Mr Iqbal, 52, was on way back home in Ghazi tehsil by his car after offering Fateh on the death of a friend in Kothra village at around 9pm when unknown attackers ambushed him.

He received multiple bullet shots in chest and died instantly. A friend of his identified as Abdul Qadeer was also critically injured. However, his gunman escaped the murder attempt.

The dead and the injured were shifted to the Ghazi Tehsil Headquarters Hospital wherefrom Qadeer was referred to a Rawalpindi hospital in critical condition.

Tahir Iqbal was a former member of the Haripur district council and the sitting divisional deputy general secretary of the ruling PTI.

Meanwhile, a seven-year-old boy was sexually assaulted on Sunday, the police said. The accused was arrested.

The Haripur city police quoted the father of the victim as saying that his son was playing outside his home in Mohallah Farooq-i- Azam when Zeeshan Razaq from the same locality coaxed him into getting to his home where he molested the boy and threatened him of consequences in case he tried to disclose the ordeal to anyone.

However, the victim’s condition forced his family to ask him what happened to him.

When the boy disclosed the abuse and the name of his rapist, his father took him to the police station and got registered a complaint against the accused.

The medical report of the victim, according to the police and the hospital sources, proved the sexual abuse.

The police after registering a criminal case under section 377 of PPC and 53 of Child Protection Act arrested the accused.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2020