CHARSADDA, Jan 21: A senior intelligence official was shot dead here on Sunday. Nisar Ahmad, Director of Intelligence Bureau, Peshawar, was killed reportedly by terrorists while he was going to a mosque for morning prayers.

Some masked militants, said to be four in number, also seized Pesh Imam Maulana Hafeezur Rehman but freed him later.

“They allowed me to go after they came to know that I am the Pesh Imam of the mosque,” the Maulana told Dawn after his release. Nisar is the senior-most intelligence official killed by terrorists in the NWFP.

A junior officer of the same agency had been killed earlier in Darra Adamkhel, a semi-autonomous arms manufacturing tribal region between Peshawar and Kohat, over a year ago.

Security officials say that a militant group based in the adjoining Mohmand tribal region, which is believed to have carried out suicide bombings in Peshawar and Charsadda, is also behind Nisar Ahmad’s killing.

Police are reported to have included the name of Maulana Hafeez in the investigation and restricted his movement to the mosque and his home.