FIR Filed Over Alleged Abduction of KP Minister Fazal Shakoor
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — WEB DESK: Police in Peshawar have registered a First Information Report against unidentified armed men over the alleged abduction of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Health Engineering Minister Fazal Shakoor Khan, a PTI lawmaker from Charsadda.
The FIR was lodged at Chamkani Police Station on the complaint of the minister’s brother, according to Express Urdu. The case names unidentified armed individuals in connection with the incident.
Police said Fazal Shakoor was travelling towards Peshawar on Monday when unidentified masked armed men intercepted him near the Peshawar Motorway Interchange and allegedly took him away at gunpoint.
Separate reporting by Dawn broadly corroborates the incident while appropriately describing it as an alleged abduction. According to the minister’s staff and PTI leaders cited by the newspaper, masked armed men intercepted his vehicle and took him to an undisclosed location.
Accounts surrounding the incident include additional allegations about gunfire. Dawn reported that the minister’s staff claimed the assailants fired at the vehicle’s tyres before taking him away. Because these details are based on witnesses and political party accounts, they should remain clearly attributed rather than presented as independently established facts.
The incident has also triggered strong reactions within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and PTI. During proceedings of the provincial assembly, KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi alleged that plainclothes individuals had attacked and taken away the minister. The KP Assembly speaker also raised questions about the handling of incidents involving provincial lawmakers. These statements represent the officials’ claims about responsibility and should not be treated as identification of the perpetrators.
The reported incident comes days before PTI’s planned September 27 protest in Islamabad, with the party alleging that arrests and other actions against its lawmakers and supporters are intended to disrupt the mobilisation. The government and PTI have exchanged increasingly strong statements over the planned protest.
At this stage, however, the FIR itself is registered against unidentified armed persons, and the available police information does not publicly establish who carried out the alleged abduction or their motive.
The case remains developing, with further information expected from police regarding the minister’s whereabouts, the investigation and identification of those involved.
