PESHAWAR, March 5 A policeman and a kidnapper were killed and five others sustained bullet injuries during an encounter here on Wednesday night, police said.

Police said that a gang of kidnappers had tried to pick Farmanullah from Canal Road but he offered resistance and the abductors opened fire on him. They added that Farmanullah and a passerby identified as Iqbal sustained injuries in the incident.

They kidnappers tried to flee in a Corolla motorcar bearing registration number JD-10-Islamabad but personnel of Peshtakhar police station chased them.

Police and kidnappers traded fire near Sarband. Police said that a constable Khushrang and a kidnapper were killed in the encounter.

The killed kidnapper was iden- tified as Humayun son of Adam Khan, a member of Malakdin Khel tribe in Bara subdivision of Khyber Agency.

Police said that the kidnappers belonged to Bara-based militant organisation, Lashkar-i-Islam. The motorcar was also taken into custody. Police claimed that the rest of three gangsters had also sustained bullet injuries but they managed to flee.

Khushrang later laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard in Badbher village on the outskirts of Peshawar.

ROCKETS FIRED

Unidentified militants fired at least 28 rockets at Adezai village in the small hours of Thursday. A house was damaged in the attack.

Adezai union council nazim Haji Abdul Malik told Dawn that rockets began to land around his residence after midnight and continued for about one hour.

“They were not rockets but mortar shells, which bear marks of Wah Factory,” Mr Malik said and added that house of Sher Mast Khan was hit by two shells. The owner of the house, he said, had been killed in a similar attack sometime ago.

He said that local people tried to locate the attackers, but couldn't do so as they had fired the mortars from Jani Khwar, about six kilometres away from Adezai village.

The nazim said that firing of mortar shells with short intervals showed that the number of attackers was in dozens.

He said volunteers were active to defend their village but they couldn't patrol in the areas every night.

He said that militants had also attacked the village on last Wednesday night and fired about 12 rockets.

An official of the Matani police station said that militants had been active in the surrounding areas but police had also beefed up security to frustrate their attacks.

EX-NAZIM KILLED

A former nazim of Peshtakhara union council Riaz Khan shot dead on Thursday outside Peshawar Central Prison when he was going home with some of his friends who were released from the jail the same day.

A police official said two parties led by Ghani and Sandal Khan had some old dispute and some of their members were in the prison.

The former nazim was going with them after they were released but in the meantime the opponent group attacked them wherein the rest of people escaped but Riaz Khan was killed.