NORTH WAZIRISTAN / LAKKI MARWAT: Nearly three weeks after the killing of six barbers belonging to Dera Ghazi Khan in North Waziristan, five more people, including at least three non-residents, were found dead in the same Mir Ali tehsil of the district on Saturday.

Police said four of the deceased were found in the Harmoz area of Mir Ali tehsil and another was spotted in the Mir Ali bazaar. They said only three of them were later identified as driver Nasibullah and cleaner Attaur Rehman, both residents of Lakki Marwat district, and Arif Khan, a resident of Karak district.

All the five bodies were shifted to hospital for autopsy, the officials said.

The police also found two vehicles parked at the vegetable market that they believed belonged to Nasibullah and Attaur Rehman. Their murder triggered protests in their hometown Lakki Marwat, where locals took to the streets after their bodies were brought there from North Waziristan.

The locals staged a protest demonstration on the busy Indus Highway. One of the protesters told Dawn that both deceased hailed from the Manjiwala area of Lakki Marwat district and they had just stopped in the Mir Ali bazaar while transporting vegetables to Tall in a pick-up truck.

He said the families of the deceased as well as other villagers got infuriated when their bodies were brought to the village from North Waziristan district. They took the bodies to Manjiwala Chowk and blocked traffic on the Peshawar-Karachi High­way. The highway closure caused queuing up of vehicles on both sides, besides troubling transporters and commuters.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killings.

Earlier on January 2, six barbers hailing from Punjab’s Dera Ghazi Khan district were abducted before being killed in the Mosaki village of Mir Ali tehsil. According to police, the barbers had been living and running shops in Mir Ali bazaar for past many years.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2024