ABBOTTABAD: A wanted man and a police official were killed and an ASI suffered injuries during an exchange of fire here the other day.

The incident occurred in the Thanda Mera area when the police attempted to arrest former police officer Azhar Pasha, who was named in five murder cases and was an absconder in an attempted murder case.

Acting on a resident’s complaint against Pasha about the kidnapping and murder of his son, a police team raided the wanted man’s hideout.

Pasha opened fire on the police, killing havaldar Waseem and seriously injuring ASI Mohammad Nadeem Kohistani.

The body was later shifted to the DHQ hospital for postmortem.

Following the initial confrontation, a district-wide search operation was launched, with reinforcements deployed from various police units. Later, the accused was tracked down.

In the ensuing second encounter, Pasha was shot dead by the police.

Havaldar Waseem was laid to rest with full police honours.

His funeral prayer was offered at the police lines where police officers and officials and community members showed up.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2025