BANNU: Four members of a local peace committee were killed on Tuesday when armed assailants opened fire on their vehicle in the Gulbadin Landi Dak area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, police said.
A senior district police official said the victims were travelling together when attackers launched indiscriminate firing, killing all four on the spot. Among the dead were a father and his son, while the identities of the other two victims were being confirmed.
Police said an investigation had been launched to determine the motive behind the attack, but cautioned that it was premature to label the incident an act of terrorism.
Local sources said peace committees in the area have taken up arms for self-protection against militant groups, a move that has heightened tensions in parts of the district.
Bannu has witnessed a series of attacks targeting peace committee members in recent months. In November last year, seven people were killed when a peace committee office came under attack in the district. A month earlier, a member of a tribal peace committee was also killed during a clash with militants in the Ahmadzai area of Bannu.
Security officials said efforts were under way to trace the attackers and assess whether the incident was linked to previous assaults on community-led peace groups in the region.
