LAKKI MARWAT: Four people including a policeman were killed and six others sustained bullet injuries when unknown assailants opened fire on them near a private school on DI Khan Road in Bannu on Thursday.

Police said the incident occurred in the limits of Saddar police station and added that school students were also among the dead and injured.

“Police and rescue officials rushed to site after the firing incident and shifted the bodies and injured persons to the District Headquarters Hospital,” they maintained.

The deceased were identified as a police constable Arifullah, 52, Abdullah, 32, Ihsanullah, 35, and a student Mohammad Abdullah, 8. The injured included Walid, 30, Sajid, 13, Mir Saood, 25, Amir, 14, Kashif, 12, and Amjad, 30, and they were shifted to the DHQ Hospital.

After the gruesome shooting incident, Bannu regional police chief Syed Ashfaq Anwar and DPO Ziauddin Ahmed along with military officials inspected the crime scene and inquired after the injured persons at the hospital.

On the occasion, the regional police officer said that police had registered a case against unknown assailants under relevant sections of Anti-Terrorism Act.

He said the perpetrators behind the incident would be brought to justice soon.The coffin of deceased policeman Arifullah was taken to Iqbal Marwat Shaheed police lines, where divisional commissioner Parweiz Sabatkhel and police and army officials attended his funeral prayers. Later, the deceased was buried at a graveyard in his native village in Bannu.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2023