LANDI KOTAL, Aug 28: Armed members of Lashkar-i-Islam took over control of two mosques belonging to their rival factions in Sheikhwal area of Khyber-Zakhakhel on Thursday.

Lashkar-i-Islam chief Mangal Bagh in the meantime, issued a warning on his FM radio asking all anti-social elements in the area to abandon their unlawful activities and surrender to his organisation.

Mangal Bagh along with nearly 500 armed activists arrived in Landi Kotal on Wednesday afternoon and spent the night with former MNA Haji Ayub Afridi at his palatial house, situated on main Peshawar-Torkhum road.

Speaking on his FM radio, Mangal Bagh asked the local people to hoist black flags atop their houses both as a protest against government failure to control the law and order situation in tribal areas and also as a token of allegiance to his organisation.

He said that Lashkar-i-Islam would not permit the observance of any un-Islamic practices in any part of Khyber Agency and would wage a jihad against the violators. He said that they would establish centres every tehsil of Khyber Agency. He announced the convergence of Masjid-i-Alicia Dunedin into the first center of his organisation in Zakhakhel area.

The said mosque was constructed by Tanzim Ahle Sunnat wal Jammat, headed by MNA Noor ul Haq Qadri and his brother Senator Hafiz Abdul Malik. The two parliamentarian brothers have shifted to Islamabad after four of their close family members were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in May this year. Lashkar-i-Islam has serious differences with the Tanzim Ahle Sunnat wal Jammat over religious grounds.

MAN KILLED: Unidentified gunmen killed a resident of Loe Shalman and injured two others in a late night ambush in Kabalo Maina near Torkhum border. The injured were identified as Mashooq from Mohmand Agency and Mir Gul from Afghanistan. Both sustained minor bullet injuries.