PESHAWAR: Police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested the main accused involved in killing eight persons in the limits of Badhber police station on June 25.

A statement issued by police said that eight persons including four children and four women were killed in Balukhel area on the outskirts of provincial capital over a monetary and land dispute. The alleged killers had managed to escape.

The statement said that police conducted raids in former frontier region of Peshawar, Darra Adamkhel, Khyber, Nowshera and other districts. It said that raids were conducted in Sindh province over report about presence of the accused persons. It added that police arrested Yar Rehman alias Yar Mohammad during the raids.

Meanwhile, Nowshera police claimed on Thursday to have arrested two persons involved in the murder of journalist Hassan Zeb. They said that the journalist was killed over a property dispute.

Addressing a press conference, the district police officer of Nowshera, Mohammad Azhar Khan, said that the journalist was murdered by motorcyclists on July 14. He said that the accused were identified as Ashfaq and his son, residents of Akbarpura.

He said that investigators found that the murder was result of a dispute over a plot that the slain journalist had sold to the accused. He said that both the parties developed a dispute over the price of the plot. He added that accused said that the dispute resulted into quarrels and threats; therefore, they decided to kill the journalist.

He said that slain journalist’s brother-in-law, brother of his first wife, was also part of the conspiracy to murder him. He said that Bilal, the brother-in-law of the journalist, helped the accused to hire an assassin for Rs100,000.

He said that court granted police two days remand of the arrested accused.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2024