Relative of Afghanistan’s ex-PM killed in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A relative of ex-prime minister of Afghanistan Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Haji Fareed, was shot dead in Pishtakhara area of Peshawar in the early hours of Tuesday.

According to the police, Fareed was coming out of a mosque in Tajabad area in Pishtakhara when unidentified persons opened fire, killing him on the spot.

Fareed, who has also served as the secretary of Hekmatyar, had recently returned from Afghanistan. He was related to Hekmatyar by law as him daughter was married to the latter’s son. 

Afghan scholars in Peshawar have been targeted in the past as well.

According to an Afghan news agency, Pajhwok, three scholars were killed in 2016 by unidentified person in Peshawar.

The triple murder had taken place after Friday’s prayers, an Afghan refugee, Azizullah, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Unidentified gunmen had opened fire at a seminary in the area, killing the madrasa head, Maulvi Ghulam Hazrat, his father and another scholar, Sheikh Ilyas.

Azizullah said the religious scholars were residents of Pachiragam district of eastern Nangarhar province, who had been living in Peshawar for the last three decades.

A man, who wished to go unnamed, said the slain scholars belonged to Pir Saif-ur-Rahman religious group in Bara area of Peshawar where the group has been engaged in a bloody rivalry with another group over the past several years.