SWABI: A jirga member was shot dead inside a mosque during the morning prayers here on Monday.

Khalabat police post officials said an unidentified person standing in the second row fired two bullets into the head of Syed Mohammad Kaka, 73, a member of Khalabat jirga, killing him on the spot.

“The incident spread panic among those present in the mosque as blood oozed from the head of the elder,” a person who was present in the mosque during the incident, told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

The police officials quoted witnesses as saying that two persons wearing masks escaped on a motorcycle parked outside the mosque.

They said the number of accused persons was three, who completed their task under a well-planned strategy, and made good their escape.

The family of the deceased said they had no enmity with anyone.

Syed Mohammad Kaka spent 30-35 years in the Middle East, especially Kuwait, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

The people, who were offering the morning prayers in the mosque, told the police that two persons asked for the time of the prayer outside the mosque, who later also joined the second row after performing ablution.

The police registered an FIR against unidentified assailants and started investigation.

Meanwhile, a family dispute claimed life of man in Razaar tehsil here on Monday, the police said.

Tariq Ali stated in the FIR he got registered with the Yar Hussain police station that he along with his nephew, Faisal Khan, came to the Shago Bridge area to pick his wife from her parents’ house.

He said they were returning home on separate motorcycles, and when they reached Ghalu Kanda area on Yar Hussain Road, Mukhtiar Khan and his son, Shayan Khan, who were already waiting there armed with pistols, stopped them.

The complainant said Mukhtiar directed his son to open fire on Faisal, and he followed the father’s order and started firing with a pistol on his nephew.

As a result, he said his nephew died on the spot. He said the cause of the incident was a family dispute.

The Yar Hussain police started further investigations into the murder.

Since the start of Ramazan it was the 10th incident of killing in the Swabi district.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2024