PTI leader Atif Munsif Khan and nine others were killed on Monday after their vehicle was attacked by a rival group in Havelian in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Abbottabad district.

Abbottabad District Police Officer (DPO) Umar Tufail confirmed the development to Dawn.com. The PTI leader was also the Havelian tehsil nazim.

According to the DPO, a rival group had opened fire on the vehicle near Havelian’s Langra village which caused the fuel tank to explode. He refuted media reports claiming that the car had been targeted by a “rocket attack”.

He said that the vehicle caught fire and was completely destroyed, adding that 10 people, including Atif, died.

The DPO said a heavy police contingent reached the spot and initiated a search operation for the culprits but a first information report (FIR) had not yet been registered.

Tufail said the bodies were moved to the Abbottabad District Headquarters Hospital.

Atif hailed from Basti Sher Khan and was the son of former provincial minister Munsif Khan Jadoon. He was elected the Havelian tehsil nazim as an independent candidate in the 2022 municipal elections.

PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry offered well wishes for the deceased.

PTI’s Faisal Javed said the provincial government should “immediately bring the criminals to justice and punish them according to the law”.

Former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Mahmood Khan also strongly condemned the “attack” on Atif and said such an assault on a political leader was “very tragic”.