BAJAUR: Unidentified assailants shot dead JUI-F activist and party nominee for the upcoming local government elections Mohammad Ilyas in Bajaur tribal district on Monday.

Police said that the incident occurred outside Government High School Khar No.1 at about 1pm.

They said that as soon as Mohammad Ilyas came out of the school after taking his last paper of the ongoing MA examinations, unidentified attackers opened firing on him with automatic rifles.

According to the Rescue 1122 officials, who immediately rushed to the spot after the incident, the 30-year-old activist of JUI-F was seriously wounded in the attack.

He shifted to the district headquarters hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

Eyewitness told Dawn that a number of people mostly shopkeepers immediately rushed to the site of occurrence after hearing the gunshots.

Workers of other parties also join sit-in to demand arrest of killers

However, the assailants managed to escape.

The victim, who belonged to Badan area of Mamund tehsil, was younger brother of JUI-F slain leader Mufti Sultan Mohammad, who had been killed by unidentified attackers on October 29, 2019.

The deceased was also nominee of JUI-F for Badan village council in the upcoming local government elections. No one claimed responsibility for the murder, which created panic in the region.

It was second incident of its kind in the area during the last 10 days. Two policemen were martyred in a remote controlled bomb blast near Raghagan Dam on November 13.

Soon after the incident, scores of JUI-F workers reached Khar to protest the killing of their colleague.

They along with the body marched to Civil Colony Khar housing the offices of almost all public departments including the district administration.

The protesters, who were later joined by JUI-F district head Maulana Abdur Rasheed and several others, staged a sit-in.

They expressed grave concerns over the murder of their party activist and said that he had no personal enmity with anyone.

They criticised the district administration and police for their failure to provide protection to people.

They threatened to continue their protest till the arrest of the killers.

Later, a group of tribal elders belonging to different areas of the district including Senator Hidayatullah Khan persuaded the JUI- F leaders to end the protest and take the body of slain activist to his home for burial.

However, the JUI-F leaders refused to end the protest.

The sit-in, which was also attended by hundreds of workers of other parties and members of civil society, was in progress till filing of this report.

Surprisingly, no official of the district administration and police visited the site of sit-in to convince the protesters to end their protest and bury the body.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2021