BAJAUR: A shooting incident in Khar Bazaar on Monday left six people injured, prompted the traders’ community to stage a protest sit-in, demanding the early arrest of the assailants and enhanced security for the marketplace.

The firing occurred in the Shingas market.

The police said they believed the firing occurred over a personal enmity.

According to witnesses, the attackers fled the scene after the firing, sparking fear and panic among traders, as the crime site was located in a supposedly safe area.

The participants of the sit-in, during which traders shut their shops, condemned the incident and termed it an attack on the entire business community, particularly the Khar Bazaar, the main trade centre of the region.

Khar traders’ association president Wajid Ali Shah, Sadiqabad traders’ body president Haji Akbar Jan, and others noted that it wasn’t the first incident in Khar and other trade centres of the district, stating that such incidents had frequently occurred in the bazaars over the last few years.

They, however, alleged that the police had yet to trace and arrest those involved in such incidents.

Reacting to the police’s claim that personal enmity was the cause of the firing the speakers stated they were only concerned about the incident’s occurrence in a public place and the police’s failure to arrest those responsible.

The participants said no one would have dared fire in the bazaar in broad daylight had the police traced and detained the perpetrators of the past incidents.

The speakers demanded of the authorities to arrest the attackers at the earliest and enhance the number of policemen in Khar and other major bazaars.

The protest sit-in ended with participants warning of a demonstration if another firing incident occurred in any trade centre in future.

The police said they had launched efforts to trace and arrest those involved in the shooting.

Meanwhile, Rescue 1122, in a statement said the injured were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital, Khar.

A critically injured person was referred to a hospital in Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2025