BAJAUR: The brother of a local leader of Awami National Party (ANP) was killed by unidentified assailants in Bajaur tribal district on Tuesday.
In a social media post, Mohammad Nisar Baz Khan, the MPA of the party from Bajaur, said that ANP leader Dr Tariq’s brother Abdur Raziq was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in front of his shop in Lowi Sam bazaar.
An official of Lowi Sam police station told Dawn that Abdur Raziq was rushed to district headquarters hospital Khar in critical condition; however, he succumbed to his injuries. He said that assailants managed to escape.
The news of attack on Abdur Raziq went viral on social media and a number of ANP workers and supporters, including party district president Gul Afzal Khan and Syed Sadiq Akbar Jan, rushed to the hospital. After the victim was pronounced dead, they took his body to Lowi Sam area where they staged a demonstration by placing the body on road.
The demonstration, which later turned into a protest camp, was addressed by Gul Afzal Khan, Shah Naseer Khan, Sadiq Akbar and several others. Condemning the killing of Abdur Raziq, they said that he had no personal enmity.
“We condemn the killing of Abdur Raziq. He was attacked in broad daylight in an area, considered a secured locality,” they added.
The protest was later joined by the deceased’s brother Dr Tariq, who said that his family had no enmity with anyone. He said that his brother was killed in a busy market instead of their hometown located in a hilly area some five kilometres away from Lowi Sam.
The protesters demanded a transparent inquiry into the incident, arrest of killers and assurance that such incidents would not happen again. They ended the protest after a team of district administration officials assured them their demands would be fulfilled.
Bajaur Aman Jirga chief Sahibzada Haroon Rashid, MNA Mubarakzeb Khan and MPAs Anwarzeb Khan and Engineer Ajmal Khan expressed concerns over the incident through their social media posts. ANP provincial president Mian Iftikhar Hussain and general secretary Hussain Shah Yousafzai also condemned the murder of Abdur Raziq.
Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2026