MANSEHRA, March 3: An additional SHO was killed and three others were injured as unidentified persons opened fire on them on Wednesday. The incident occurred when police and Frontier Constabulary (FC) contingents were standing alert at Baidra Chowk on the Karakoram Highway (KKH) to stop a transporters' procession that was heading towards the toll plaza near Mansehra. They were demanding removal of the toll plaza.

Law enforcing agencies had erected barricades at Baidra Chowk. They resorted to baton-charge and fire tear-gas shells to disperse protesters when some unidentified persons opened fire on police.

As a result, Sub-inspector Mohammad Safeer Khan, additional SHO of the model police station, Mansehra city, was killed on the spot while police constable Azizur Rehman, FC man Ismatullah and civilian Farhad Khan were injured.

The dead and the injured were taken to the DHQ hospital Mansehra. However, the body of Mohammad Safeer Khan after an autopsy was later shifted to Mansehra Police Lines for funeral on Wednesday evening.

After the incident, some police officials got infuriated and damaged a number of vehicles parked at the municipal bus stand and the office of Feroze Khan, president of the Wagon Owners Association. Many drivers and office-bearers of different transporter bodies have been also rounded up.

The transporters of Hazara have been demanding removal of the toll plaza on the Mansehra-Abbottabad road since long. A few weeks ago, they had also set a deadline for the removal of the toll plaza, but on the assurance of district Nazim Syed Ahmad Hussain Shah to address their grievances, they called off their protest.

But when their demand was not accepted, they set a dead line of March 3 and scheduled a sit-in on the KKH in front of the toll plaza and a wheel-jam strike for Wednesday. It was due to this strike that daily commuters, office goers, students and teachers faced a lot of difficulties.