Firing on census team injures policeman in Charsadda

CHARSADDA: A man opened fire on a census team, injuring a policeman on Tuesday.

The perpetrator, identified as Fakhar Alam (alias Hakim), belongs to Malakand District.

The census team was occupied with routine tasks when police and army personnel accompanying the officers signalled a suspicious man to stop.

A policeman sustained injuries after the man opened fire on the census team.

The accused who was also injured in retaliatory firing from the police was immediately arrested.

The policeman and Alam were transferred to the Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar.

21 Division's Major General Amir Awan has announced a PKR 50,000 reward for the injured police officer, Assistant Commissioner Tangi Muhammad Ali told Geo News.    

Also Read: Sixth population census begins in 63 districts across Pakistan

The sixth population census in underway in the country after a span of 19 years on the orders of the Supreme Court.

For the security of the census team, an army soldier has been attached with each enumerator.

 According to chief statistician Asif Bajwa, as many as 118,000 enumerators from different departments, including the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, have been trained for the process. 175,000 Army personnel have been deployed in the districts for the first phase of the census. 

In its first phase, from March 15 to April 15, the census will be conducted in 16 districts of Punjab, eight districts of Sindh, 14 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15 districts of Balochistan, five districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and five districts of Gilgit-Baltistan.