MIRANSHAH: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a prominent tribal elder, designated by the government as the chief of North Waziristan, along with his driver and a bodyguard in Miranshah, North Waziristan Agency, on Thursday.
A senior government official said Malik Qadir Khan was on his way home in a car when armed men opened fire on them near the Chashma Pul.It is the same place where a senior local journalist Malik Mumtaz Khan was killed by unidentified people two years ago.
Malik Qadir Khan belonged to the Madakhel tribe. He was among the leading tribal elders and someone who tried to maintain peace in North Waziristan. He was the head of the tribal Jirga constituted by Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s JUI-F to promote peace talks with the militants. However, the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif didn’t use the services of the tribal Jirga much to the annoyance of Maulana Fazlur Rahman.
Due to security concerns and following the targeted killing of tribal elders, Malik Qadir Khan had shifted his family from his native North Waziristan to Lakki Marwat district in the southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province a few years ago.
Most of his tribe continued to live in North Waziristan, a volatile tribal region where local and foreign militants are active.“He used to come to Waziristan to help settle local disputes and would return home after spending some time,” the government official said. Pleading anonymity, he said the three men died on the spot.
A local elder said the killing of the noted tribal elder, Malik Qadir Khan, had contributed to the concerns of the people in North Waziristan. “He was widely respected and had no enmity. We don’t know who would have done it,” he said.The government had given Malik Qadir Khan the status of the chief of Waziristan as he wielded considerable influence among the tribes.
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