KOHAT, Sept 3: Tension is high in the restive Hangu district after a leader of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), who was seriously wounded in an attack on Aug 23, died in a Peshawar hospital on Friday, taking the number of people killed in the targeted shooting to 15 during the past two years.

The Jamaat leaders and Sunni Supreme Council (SSC) on Saturday held a reference in Hangu in which they condemned the murder of their leader, Khalid Nawaz Farooqi, and announced to hold a protest meeting in front of Parliament House in Islamabad on September 6.

It was attended by Maulana Abdul Sattar and Maulana Usman Jhangvi of the ASWJ and SSC. They demanded of the government to investigate the matter and arrest the killers, saying that their leaders were being targeted under a well-planned conspiracy.

Mr Farooqi, who was also a member of the peace committee, was injured by armed persons near stadium road in an attack on his vehicle on August 23 last. He was admitted to the Hangu district hospital, but after his condition deteriorated he was shifted to a private hospital in Peshawar where he died on Friday. He was laid to rest in the presence of a large number of people.

The district administration had already banned gatherings of people, display of arms and pillion riding under Section 144 keeping in view the delicate sectarian situation in the Hangu district. Even then Mr Farooqi's funeral was attended by thousands of people who also blocked the main Hangu-Parachinar highway for hours to protest his killing.

During the last two years former provincial irrigation minister Ghaniur Rehman, former local amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Fida Saadi and former district nazim Khan Afzal besides a number of other people were killed in gun and bomb attacks.

However, the recent death of a religious leader had aggravated the security situation in Hangu where policemen and civilians had lost their lives in suicide bomb blasts carried out by the militants.

The militants also targeted several convoys and passengers of Parachinar on Hangu-Thall highway which forced the government to launch operation in the central and lower Kurram Agency. But the tribesmen and people of Hangu were not satisfied with the results of the operations in Orakzai Agency and Kurram Agency where top leadership of banned Tehrik-i-Taliban, including Mullah Toofan and Hakeemullah Mehsud, was still hiding.