LAKKI MARWAT: Miscreants blew up a gas pipeline near Wanda Amir area in Lakki Marwat district on Tuesday night.

A police official said a homemade bomb went off with a bang, breaking the pipeline into pieces and creating a big crater.

He said terrorists were often seen moving about in the Wanda Amir area.

Meanwhile, an elderly man was shot dead in the Paharkhel Pacca area of Lakki on Tuesday night.

Police said the bullet-riddled body of Mohammad Ayyub Khan, 75, was found in the guestroom of a villager, Zeeshan Khan. They said the attackers also set fire to a car, a donkey cart, a solar power system and two rooms before fleeing the place.

Farmanullah, 28, son of the deceased, told Ghaznikhel police his father would work as a watchman at the guestroom of Zeeshan. “Hearing the gunshots at night made me worry about my father and when I came out of my house, around 20 armed men, standing on rooftops of houses, asked me to go back,” he claimed, adding next day, he found the body of his father.

He said his family had no enmity with anyone.

The police said the body was moved to the District Headquarters Hospital to complete medico-legal formalities.

Some villagers said an intense exchange of fire had occurred between militants and armed volunteers of the local peace body led by Zeeshan a day before the murder of Ayyub. They said the armed men might have attacked the guestroom of Zeeshan to take revenge from him for his active role in the local peace committee.

Separately, unknown armed men killed a proclaimed offender and dumped his body in the fields near Bachkan Ahmadzai area of Lakki on Tuesday night. The police shifted the body to the DHQ Hospital.

“Preliminary investigation revealed the deceased, identified as Naimatullah, 30, was wanted by the Ghaznikhel police in murder and attempted murder cases,” they claimed.

The police registered a case against the unknown killer(s) on the complaint of the deceased’s father, Niaz Gul, and initiated an investigation.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2025