DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Oct 29: Unidentified persons shot dead an influential member of a local peace committee here on Friday night and took away his head with them.

Sources said that Qari Marjan was killed by unidentified assailants in Rori village in the limits of Kulachi police station.

Police registered a case on the report of Mohammad Iqbal, who told them that his cousin Qari Marjan, 41, was having tea along with his friends at a tea stall when masked men opened firing on him.

He said that the masked assailants beheaded him after killing and took away his head with them. “The residents of the area found his head, dumped about one kilometre away from the village, on Saturday,” police said.

In Nowshera, three persons were seriously injured when an explosion occurred in Afghanistan-bound oil tanker at a workshop at Pabbi on Saturday.

Police said that the oil tanker developed some faults and was taken to a workshop at Toru Jabba. A blast occurred in the vehicle when mechanics started to repair it. The mechanic, Akbar, his helper, Atif, and a passerby identified as Rehmat Gulwere injured in the blast.

The Pabbi police station registered a case against the owner of tanker, Mohammad Yoqoob, and started investigation.

Meanwhile, a house was partially damaged when explosives went off in a village in the precincts of Mandan police station in Bannu on Friday night.

The residents of the area said that the explosion blew away the main gate of the house of Abdul Ghaffar in Kangar Larmast village and damaged a room in which the family members were asleep.

However, the family members remained unhurt. Police reached the spot soon after the incident and collected evidence.

In a subsequent search operation in Janikhel and Miryan areas, police arrested 21 suspected persons, one of them in injured condition, after an exchange of fire. The injured man identified as Akbar Zaman was taken to a local hospital.