SWABI: A man killed his brother and his wife after arguing with him over a petty issue in Topi city on Sunday night, rescue and police officials said.

They said the incident occurred in Musakhel locality.

SHO Topi police station Haroon Khan, while quoting father of the deceased, said Maaz Zaman was beating his pet dog in the street in front of the house of his brother. He said Shaukat Zaman, the deceased, came out of his house and told his brother not to beat the dog as it was causing much noise.

The police officer said the two brothers argued over the matter for some time, prompting Maaz to pull out a pistol and open fire on Shaukat, killing him on the spot. Hearing the gunshots, the wife of the deceased rushed to the street only to find her husband lying in a pool of blood and started crying, the police official said, adding Maaz also opened fire on the woman, killing her on the spot, and escaped.

The deceased couple had a single five-year-old son.

Luqman Zaman, father of the deceased, got registered an FIR against his son.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s opposition leader in the then district council, Azizullah Khan, joined Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazal on Monday.

He made the decision during a function also attended by former education minister and central vice-emir of JUI-F Maulana Fazal Ali Haqqani, Ghafoor Khan Jadoon, former food minister, and others.

On the occasion, Maulana Haqqani anticipated that more PTI leaders would join JUI-F.

When contacted, PTI district president Sohail Yousafzai insisted that Mr Azizullah had joined the PTI for achieving his petty objectives and once his mission was completed he left the party. “The departure of such people would have no impact on PTI in the district,” he claimed.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2022