PESHAWAR, April 1: Law enforcement personnel shot dead a man in the back room of a video centre in Bhana Mari area on Saturday after he opened fire on a police raiding party and critically wounded a head constable.

Police officials said that a team of Bhani Mari police led by head constable Shah Jahan had gone to the main bazaar as part of its anti-obscenity campaign.

They conducted a raid on what they insisted was “a mini cinema” allegedly being run in the back room of a video centre. Police officials said that two persons were watching a movie at the time.

“The video centre had established a special room for screening films,” the officials said. The room was locked from inside and two persons Akhtary alias Fauji of Takht-i-Nusrati tehsil in Karak district and Mubarrak Shah, a resident of Muslimabad locality on Kohat Road, were watching a film.

The head constable ordered the men inside the back room to open the door, but Akhtary refused to do so. When Shah Jahan repeated the order, Akhtary fired four bullets from behind the closed door, two of which hit the head constable in the face and chest, according to the officials.

Police in retaliation opened fire, killing Akhtary on the spot and arresting Mubarak after barging open the door. The head constable was taken to the Lady Reading Hospital in a critical condition.

Senior Superintendent of Police (operations) Saeed Khan Wazir said that law enforcement personnel would continue their campaign against obscenity in the city. He said that police would not allow anyone to set up “mini-cinema houses” in video centres.

Several raids have been conducted by the capital city police on music and video centres in different markets of the provincial metropolis over the last few week and dozens of pornographic CDs and video-tapes have been seized.