CHARSADDA: Local residents and traders placed the body of slain trader Hamza Taimur at Umerzai Chowk and closed the main Tangi-Peshawar road to traffic here on Wednesday in protest against the killing of the young trader by robbers.

The Umerzai Bazaar traders also observed complete shutter-down.

Unknown robbers riding a motorcycle opened indiscriminate firing on Hamza Taimur and his uncle Jaffar Shah on resistance on Tuesday. As a result, both got serious injuries and were shifted to a hospital, but Hamza succumbed to his injuries.

The protesters brought the coffin of the slain trader in a procession and placed it at Umerzai Chowk where they offered his funeral prayer on the road. The traders downed shutters of their shops as three-day mourning was announced by the business community.

The protesters also set a three-day deadline to police for arrest of the killers and threatened to block the Peshawar Motorway.

They were addressed by ANP district president MPA Shakil Bashir Khan, QWP’s Yahya Khan Mohmand and Hamid Khan, Umarzai Bazaar president Asmatullah, JUI-F’s Maulana Mohammad Tayyab and other local political leaders.

Meanwhile, meetings of traders associations were also held in Tangi and Charsadda. They demanded of the chief minister to take notice of the incident and order immediate arrest of the assailants.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2021