PESHAWAR: Five alleged contract assassins were killed in a police encounter here on Monday morning, the police said in a statement.

The statement said that a special team of the capital city police raided a house, triggering an exchange of fire between the alleged contract killers and the personnel.

Following an intense exchange of fire, five alleged hired assassins were killed while some of them escaped.

The statement said that the deceased were identified as Hamid, Bilal, Haji Malang, Najmul Hassan alias Pheeny, and Kamranullah.

The gang had been operating under Lal Sher and Jan Sher group, a notorious Peshawar-based gang and was responsible for 31 targeted killings across districts, including 12 murders in Peshawar, 17 in Nowshera and one each in Charsadda and Darra Adamkhel, the statement said, adding that the victims of the targeted killings also included two police constables, a leader of ANP and his brother.

On December 4, three members of the Lal Sher alias Lalay group, wanted by police in 34 cases, including deadly attacks on police, murders and land grabbing, were traced and killed.

They were killed in two raids one being conducted in Puran area of Shangla district and the other in Shahpur area of the provincial capital.

“Both the pre-dawn raids were conducted at the same time,” a senior police official said, adding that during the raid in Puran, which lasted for almost seven hours, police killed Lal Sher and his brother Jan Sher. Third member of the gang, Ramazan Sher, was killed in Shahpur raid.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2025