CHARSADDA, Dec 2: The local Taliban killed three people and injured five others in an attack on a cockfight fare at the Shene Ghundae village in Shabqadar tehsil’s Sro Kaley area on Sunday.

Witnesses said the weekly fare was in progress when a group of local Taliban appeared from nowhere and opened indiscriminate fire on the people.

Three persons, Nawar, Bismillah Jan and Mohammad Ali were killed on the spot. Witnesses said that the militants arrived in three pick-up trucks and were armed with sophisticated weapons, including Kalashnikovs. An official of the concerned Sro Kaley police station told Dawn that the militants had entered the area from the adjacent Mohmand Agency. He added that since the militants came through unfrequented routes, it was difficult for police to hunt them down.

Shams Momand adds from Ghalanai: The spokesman for the local Taliban, Abdu Nauman Askari, told Dawn that they had earlier warned Akhtiar Khan, the organiser of the cockfighting fare and alleged ringleader of gambling dens in the area, to abandon the ‘anti-Islam’ practices.

He claimed that Akhtiar had warned them that he would not allow their entry into his area. He said that on Sunday the Taliban had only gone to the area to again urge the organiser to stop the cockfights, but instead they attacked them. He claimed that the three people were killed in the exchange of fire, one of which was the brother of Akhtiar, Nawar Khan.