CHARSADDA, Jan 5: In an alarming trend of deadly attacks on aid workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two more charity workers were gunned down near here on Saturday.

According to police, Zakir Hussain, provincial director of the education wing of Al Khidmat Foundation, a charity organisation affiliated with Jamaat-i-Islami, and his driver were shot dead by assailants in Uthmanzai, seven kilometres from here.

On Tuesday, seven charity workers, including six women, were shot dead in Swabi district.

Zakir was going to Tangi from Charsadda in a car to visit a school being run by the charity. When the car reached Uthmanzai, two gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on it.

Bullets hit Zakir Hussain and his driver Khadim Jan. Both died on the spot. Shaukat Hussain, brother of Zakir Hussain, escaped unhurt.

The suspects fled on their motorcycle.

The bodies of the victims were taken to the district hospital in Charsadda for post-mortem.

Shaukat Hussain has lodged an FIR against unidentified assailants at the Charsadda police station.

Later in the day, Zakir Hussain was laid to rest at his family graveyard amid moving scenes. The funeral prayer was led by JI provincial president Prof Muhammad Ibrahim and attended by Sirajul Haq, vice president of the party, Al-Khidmat Foundation president Prof Dr Hafeezur Rehman, former ministers, parliamentarians and others.

Addressing the participants, Sirajul Haq alleged that the government had lost its writ and failed to protect lives of people.

No-none was safe in the country from Khyber to Karachi, he added.

He said the Awami National Party had obtained votes on the basis of a promise to restore peace in the KP, but had turned the province into an explosives’ dump. He alleged that President Asif Ali Zardari and ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan were only interested in following US agenda.

He called upon the government to ensure the arrest of the killers.

The DPO of Charsadda, Mohammad Nisar Ali Marwat, told reporters that four suspected motorcyclists had been arrested and were undergoing interrogation.

He said two teams had been formed to investigate the incident.

AFP adds: A representative of an alliance of KP-based NGOs called for arrest of the attackers.

“We condemn the killing of Al Khidmat Foundation workers,” Idrees Kamal, the coordinator of Pakhtunkhwa Civil Society Network, said in a statement.