A police constable was abducted and later killed in Bajaur’s Barang tehsil, officials said. Police said the victim was tortured, a case has been registered, and an investigation is under way.

BAJAUR: A police constable was abducted and later killed by unidentified armed men in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district, officials said on Friday.

Officials said the constable was taken away on Thursday in the Asil Targaoo area of Barang tehsil while he was travelling to his posting in Sindh Gara.

According to a report lodged at Barang police station, the constable’s body was found on a mountain in Asil Targaoo along the Bajaur-Mohmand border on Friday morning. The report said police received information from local residents about the body and a police team, accompanied by local people, went to the area.

The body was later shifted to a local hospital for a postmortem examination.

The police report stated that the 50-year-old constable had been subjected to severe torture and that there were multiple signs of physical abuse on different parts of his body. District police spokesperson Israr Khan confirmed the incident and said the postmortem report also verified that the constable’s body carried several marks of violence.

He said the body was taken to the constable’s hometown for burial after official funeral prayers were offered. The funeral was attended by a large number of people, including senior police officials.

Police have launched an investigation to trace those involved in the killing and establish the motive, the spokesperson said. He added that a case had been registered against unidentified assailants.

No group had claimed responsibility for the incident. The killing drew condemnation and concern among local residents, particularly because Barang tehsil had been regarded as one of the safer parts of the district.

Recent violence in Bajaur

The incident comes amid renewed militant violence in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad has repeatedly called on the Taliban to eliminate militant sanctuaries on Afghan soil, especially those linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, but officials say those requests have not been acted upon.

On Thursday evening, two children were killed and four others were injured during an exchange of fire between security forces and militants in Bajaur.

Earlier, on Sunday, two people, including a social activist, were killed in separate attacks in the district by unidentified assailants.

Last month, two children and a woman were killed, while three others were injured, when mortar shells fired from across the Afghan border struck a house in Kitkot village in the same district.

Police spokesperson Israr Khan said the postmortem report confirmed that the constable’s body bore multiple marks of violence.