A senior civil judge and a lawyer were killed on Tuesday by unknown motorcyclists near the Rashakai area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Nowshera district when they were returning from Mardan, according to the police.

Nowshera District Police Officer(DPO) Abdur Rasheed told Dawn.com that the victims were travelling from Mardan when the assailants attacked their car.

He said the bodies were moved to Nowshera Medical Complex where they were later identified as Mohammad Hayat, a senior civil judge at the Mardan district courts and resident of Swat’s Bahrain, and lawyer Khalid Khan, a resident of Mardan district’s Malandara.

The DPO said the incident was said to be one of personal enmity as revenge for the murder of a relative recently in the Malandari area of Mardan district.

He added that a first information report was being lodged in the case and further investigation would begin.

KP Inspector General of Police Zulfiqar Hameed took notice of the incidents and sought a report from the authorities.

Armed drug smugglers opened fire on an Excise Intelligence Bureau (EIB) mobile squadron in the Taro Pabbi area of Nowshera in the early hours of Sunday. As a result, constables Iftikhar and Mujahid were martyred. The vehicle’s driver, Shabbir, also lost his life in the attack.

Funeral prayers for the martyred personnel were offered with full honours at Police Lines Peshawar on Sunday morning.