CHARSADDA; A senior Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) provincial council member, Hafiz Maulana Abdul Salam Arif, was gunned down by unidentified assailants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda district on Tuesday evening.
According to Investigating Officer (IO) Safdar Khan, the JUI leader was returning home after offering evening prayers at a nearby mosque when two unidentified men riding a motorcycle opened fire on him, killing him on the spot.
“The case is being probed from all possible angles,” the IO said, adding that police teams had collected forensic evidence from the site while a special investigation unit had also been called in to assist.
The victim’s son later lodged an FIR at Mandani Police Station.
Maulana Abdul Salam was not only a member of the JUI provincial council but also served as the head of Madressah Abu Bakar Siddique in Tehsil Tangi and as the khateeb of a mosque located within the Jamalabad Dairy Farm area.
The assassination has sparked concern over the increasing number of targeted killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In a similar incident in July, Awami National Party (ANP) politician Maulana Khan Zeb and a police constable were shot dead in Bajaur district by unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles while the politician was campaigning for the July 13 peace parade.
Three others were injured in that attack, which authorities described as a case of targeted killing.
