CHARSADDA, Feb 17: Two traders and a prayer leader were gunned down in Utmanzai Bazaar on Friday.

Enraged by the killings, local traders later observed complete shutdown and took out a rally.

Arif, of Sanam Garhi, told police that he was sitting with his brothers, Shakil and Shahzad, at their Otmanzai Bazaar shop when Bahadar Ali and Javed along with their father Amirzada, of Jahangirabad, showed up and sprayed them with bullets.

He said the firing instantly killed Mr Shakil and Mr Shahzad, while prayer leader of a local mosque Mohammad Gul suffered critical injuries and died at the hospital.

Police said the reason for the firing was stated to be a minor dispute.

Later, traders closed shops and took out a rally against the killings on the call of Anjuman Dukandaran Utmanzai.

They placed the bodies on the Utmanzai Bazaar Road suspending traffic.

Trader leaders criticised law-enforcement agencies over the killings and demanded early arrest of killers for exemplary punishment. They warned the administration of agitation in case killers weren’t arrested.

Meanwhile, local Pakistan People’s Party leaders on Friday rejected nominations by the party for Senate elections.

Presidents and general secretaries of PPP in three tehsils of Charsadda, who gathered at the house of PPP Charsadda tehsil president Teemur Khan Khattak in Utmanzai, said the leadership had been ignoring the party’s old guards for the last four years and that they were again ignored during the award of tickets for Senate elections.

They also criticised the leadership over making coalition with ANP and said the Asfandyar Wali-led nationalist party had pushed PPP to the wall in the province. They alleged ANP was not consulting PPP leaders before making major decisions in the province.PPP leaders warned that party would suffer a lot if its grouping with ANPO continued anymore. They also threatened to agitate if their concerns on the matter weren’t allayed.

Also in the day, journalists, political leaders, civil society members, lawyers and traders protested the ransacking of the Electronic Media Association (EMA) offices by Pesco officials and demanded judicial inquiry into it for punishment of the culpable officials.

They alleged that Pesco officials stormed EMA offices without legal authority and abused office-bearers.

The protest was attended by ANP, PPP, PPP-S, PML-N, JI, PTI, Mazdoor Kisan Party, Pakhtunkhwa Mazdoor Kisan Party, Utmankhel Qaumi Movement, Tanzeem Tehrik-i-Mutasrin, Shabqadar and Charsadda Bar Association office-bearers, APCA, Al-Khidmat Foundation, Youth Welfare Society, Pasban, Awami jirga, Pakhtun Students Federation, People’s Students Federation, Islami Jamiat Talaba, Munciapla Workers Association, Paramedical Association, Muttahida Shopkeepers Federation and Local Government Employees Federation in large numbers.