KHYBER: Two under-arrest ‘car smugglers’ were killed when unidentified assailants exchanged fire with the Khyber police in Jamrud tehsil on Sunday evening, the police claimed.

A statement issued from the office of the Khyber district police officer said that the police had taken two arrested men, identified as Eshfaq Ahmad and Hidayat Khan, to the site, where alleged car smugglers had killed Malagori SHO Riaz Hussain Afridi earlier in the day, for investigation.

The statement said that the police team accompanying the two arrested suspects came under intense fire from different directions by unidentified gunmen, suspected to be the colleagues of the arrested men.

The statement claimed that while the police team escaped unhurt, the two arrested men sustained multiple bullet injuries and died on the spot.

Earlier in the day, SHO Riaz Afridi was critically injured during a shootout with the alleged smugglers of non-customs-paid vehicles when he tried to intercept them while they were trying to smuggle NCP vehicles to the bordering Mohmand district. He later succumbed to his injuries during treatment at the hospital.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2026