By Le Figaro with AFP
Published on 03/21/2023 at 09:38, updated on 03/21/2023 at 09:54
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The head of a district council in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and 10 others have been killed in north-west Pakistan. FAROOQ NAEEM
A prominent local politician and 10 other people were killed by gunmen in north-west Pakistan Monday night, police said on Tuesday, citing a 50-year-old family vendetta.
“At least five people opened fire” on the vehicle carrying politician Atif Munsif Khan, the head of a district council in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and ten others, including bodyguards and a police escort, district police chief Omar Tufail told AFP.
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“The vehicle caught fire as a result of the gunfire and all occupants were burned,” he added, adding that the attack took place in the city of Havelian, 33km north of Islamabad. Atif Munsif Khan’s family filed a complaint with the police, “attributing the assassination to their rivals,” the officer added. Family hatreds “reaching back nearly five decades” have already claimed the lives of Atif Munsif Khan’s father and grandfather. “Dozens of people” have already been killed over this family feud, he added.
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Settlements within the family are common in Pakistan, but they can be particularly long-lasting and violent in the mountainous north-west region, where communities adhere to traditional tribal codes of honour. A senior local police official, Sajid Tanoli, ruled out the involvement of militant groups like Pakistan’s Taliban, which have long been successful in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Atif Munsif Khan was a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan. The two men are not related.