PESHAWAR/KOHAT, Jan 25: A local leader of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Haji Gul Rehman Afridi, was shot dead near Shahi Bagh here on Wednesday evening.

Attaur Rehman, the son of the deceased, told police that he had no enmity and the assassins were unidentified persons. "We were sitting in our residence when someone informed me about the murder of my father," the complainant said.

JUI-F provincial spokesman Abdul Jalil Jan told Dawn that the deceased was a former chief of the party in Landi Kotal tehsil of Khyber Agency. He played an important role in strengthening JUI-F in the tribal area, he added.

He said that political administration had arrested the deceased under Frontier Crimes Regulation and he was recently released from Peshawar Central Prison.

A police source said that Mr Afridi was on way to his home when armed men, riding a motorcycle, opened firing on him. The official said that some people in the area had seen the attackers and they might help police in arresting them.

The deceased, he said, had sustained three bullets in his head and chest. He was rushed to Lady Reading Hospital but could not survive. A case against unidentified persons was registered at Faqirabad police station.

In Kohat, two officials of agricultural department were injured when unidentified assailants opened firing on their car on Hangu Road on Wednesday.

Sources said that the assistant director of agricultural department, Hesiatullah Khan, was coming to Kohat from Hangu in a car when armed persons travelling in a Toyota Hiace attacked him near Nasratkhel village.

As a result, Hesiatullah Khan and senior clerk Mawuiz Khan sustained bullet injuries. A peon, Riasat, who also accompanied, them escaped unhurt. The injured were shifted to KDA hospital for treatment. The Cantonment police station registered a case.

In another incident, a man was injured when two armed motorcyclists opened firing on him near Babul Madina hospital in Hangu city. The victim was identified as Spin Khan, a resident of Wrasta. He was taken to district headquarters hospital.

The Hangu city police recorded the statement of the victim and registered a case against unidentified accused.