Ahead of February 8 elections, Imran Khan’s party leader shot dead in northwest Pakistan

Peshawar, January 11

A local leader of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party was shot dead on Thursday in Pakistan’s restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, a day after an independent candidate contesting for the February 8 elections was killed in a similar incident.

Shah Khalid, a local leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was shot dead by motorcycle-borne unidentified assailants in the Swabi district of the province, Geo News reported.

According to the police, the attackers fired shots at Khalid’s car and escaped. The PTI leader died on the spot.

While police have launched a search operation for the assailants, the motives behind Khalid’s murder are not known, the channel said.

The incident comes a day after Malik Kaleemullah, an independent candidate from the PK 104 Miran Shah constituency of the North Waziristan tribal district, was killed along with his two companions in the province.

Kaleemullah was ambushed by unknown assailants when he was on his way back home with two friends near Tappi village.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) candidate for NA-258, Aslam Buledi, was injured during a firing incident in Turbat city of Balochistan province, the report said.

Pakistan goes to polls on February 8 and has seen a spike in terror incidents in recent days, particularly in the restive northwest.

According to a recent report by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) think-tank, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was the most affected by terror attacks in November, recording 51 attacks with 54 deaths and 81 injuries.