KOHAT, Jan 9: Hundreds of protesters closed the Kohat-Hangu highway on Monday against the killing of a prominent member of banned religious group.

Sources said that Abdul Wahab, a member of banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Sunni Supreme Council, was abducted from the station area of Hangu on Dec 31, 2011. They said that his body was recovered from Matni area near Darra Adamkhel and shifted to Hangu for burial on Sunday morning.

The sources said Mr Wahab's body bore marks of violence and bullet wound in the head. The protesters alleged that the victim was picked up by the law-enforcement agencies and later killed.

Earlier, Khasadar Force of Darra Adamkhel was informed that a beheaded body of a man was lying on the main road. An administrative official of Darra Adamkhel told this correspondent the body of Mr Wahab was found in the 'nogo' region of Matni, located between Kohat and Peshawar in the settled area. The protesters were chanting slogans against the government and demanding early arrest of the culprits responsible for the murder.

Some police officers visited the protesters and asked them to open the road, but they refused to disperse till the Kohat commissioner or other high official would come for talks with them.

They said that they wanted to present their demands before the senior officers and obtain a guarantee for the constitution of a high-level inquiry into the murder of the religious leader.

The highway was closed till filing of this report and hundreds of vehicles were stranded on both sides of the Kohat and Hangu districts on Monday night.

According to sources, the banned SSP members, pres ent at the funeral, warned the government and intelligence agencies to stop killing of their men and announced to form a strategy to stop such cases.

BULLET KILLS: A woman died when she was hit by a bullet fired 'accidentally' from the pistol of her husband, a police constable, inside their home in Jarma here on Sunday, police claimed.

Jarma police said that constable Asif was cleaning his pistol when a bullet was accidentally fired and hit his wife, Rukhsana, who died instantly. Her body was taken to hospital for autopsy.

The police registered the case on the information of the constable.