LAKKI MARWAT: People staged a protest against the police over the killing of a villager in Shahbazkhel town here on Friday.

The police claimed that the killer was arrested and shifted to the police station.

The protesters insisted that a policeman in plainclothes opened fire in the bazaar killing a villager and injuring a cloth merchant.

They shouted slogans against the killing and demanded arrests over it.

Cloth merchant Faisal Shadi Khan told police that he and his brother Mohammad Ismail were present inside their shop when policeman Asifullah carrying an AK-47 assault rifle and accompanied by an unidentified armed man showed up, took a piece of cloth and left without payment.

He said he was manhandled as he asked the policeman for payment.

The complainant said both armed men later intercepted him and his brother as the latter were on the way to the police station to lodge a complaint against the former.

He added that the two men opened fire injuring his brother and passerby Mohammad Riaz Khan, who later died.

The residents later staged a demonstration on the Indus Highway.

Officials of the police and administration held talks with protesters and persuaded them to reopen the highway.

A police official said constable Asifullah had been taken into custody after the registration of a case against him and the accompanying unidentified man over the firing incident.

He said the policeman’s assault rifle along with magazines, bullets and two hand grenades were also sezied.

Meanwhile, the police set temporary checkpoints on major roads as well as entry and exit points of Lakki Marwat district as part of security measures for Eid.

A police official said more than 300 police personnel would be deployed at checkpoints as well as outside mosques where Eid congregations were to be held.

He said the sub-divisional police officers would supervise security arrangements in the respective areas.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2023