A father killed his son, who did not support the same political party as him, near Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan, just weeks before the country's general election, local police said Tuesday.
The son, who recently returned from Qatar, where he worked, wanted to display the flag of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, on the facade of the family home in the Khyber province of Pakhtunkhwa.
“The father forbade him from hoisting the PTI flag in front of the house, but the son refused to remove it and leave the PTI,” local police officer Naseer Farid told AFP.
“The argument escalated and in a fit of rage, the father fired a gun at his 31-year-old son before fleeing the house,” he added.
The son died on the way to the hospital.
Police are looking for the father, who is a supporter of the Awami National Party, a Pashtun nationalist party.
The February 8 election is expected to take place without Imran Khan, who was ousted from power by a no-confidence motion in April 2022.
Although he remains the country's most popular politician, he has been imprisoned since August, facing numerous charges and has been declared ineligible to vote for five years.
Election campaigns in Pakistan are generally marked by episodes of violence. Many candidates and voters have been the target of armed attacks and bombings by Islamist insurgents in the past.