PESHAWAR: An elderly man belonging to a religious minority was gunned down by an unidentified attacker at a bus stop here on Sunday.

Badabher police station registered a murder case under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the deceased’s brother.

Mahboob Khan, 75, had gone to the residence of his daughter in the Sheikh Mohammadi area, situated in the southern outskirts of the provincial capital. He was waiting at a stop for a bus on his way back home when he came under attack and died on the spot.

Police stated in the FIR that when they reached the spot the deceased’s brother Mir Ahmad was already there. He told police that he was present at his residence when he received information that his brother was killed by someone.

The complainant stated that he reached the place of occurrence and found the body of his brother lying there. He said his brother was attacked by unknown killer or killers for unknown motive, adding that they had no enmity with anyone.

In a press release, a spokesperson for the Ahmadiya community Saleem-ud-Din claimed that the murder was a direct result of an ongoing hate campaign against the community which remained vulnerable to such attacks. He said this was the fourth such incident in Peshawar against the community members over the past four months.

It is worth mentioning that an under-trial blasphemy accused, Tahir Ahmad Naseem, was killed inside a courtroom at the Peshawar Judicial Complex by a teenager on Jul 29. The killer and his two facilitators, including a junior lawyer and a cleric, are facing trial by an anti-terrorism court inside the Peshawar central prison. The deceased was a US citizen.

In August, the owner of a medical store, Meraj Ahmad, who also belonged to the Ahmadiya community, was killed inside his shop in the Dabgari area by an unidentifi ed gunman.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2020