KP minister allegedly abducted near Peshawar motorway toll plaza

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government said on Monday that provincial minister Fazl Shakoor Khan was abducted by unidentified men near Peshawar’s M-1 motorway toll plaza, and that his vehicle came under fire. No group has claimed the act and the minister’s whereabouts were unknown late Monday evening.

At a news conference in Peshawar, Chief Minister Sohail Afridi alleged that “our provincial minister was abducted by men in plain clothes and his vehicle was fired upon. If they think our movement will fail, it won’t.”

PTI also claimed a second provincial minister, Shakeel Ahmad, survived an abduction attempt on Sunday in a similar manner and that shots were fired before he escaped, according to BBC Urdu.

Fazl Shakoor Khan’s secretary Mohammad Alam told BBC Urdu that an application to register an FIR had been submitted at Chamkani police station. Aaj News reported that the FIR was later registered at Chamkani on the complaint of the minister’s brother, retired Major Anwar Aziz, against unknown persons. The FIR says the minister was travelling from Meera Parang, Charsadda, to the KP Assembly when uniformed and plainclothes men attacked his vehicle near the M-1 toll plaza.

The minister’s brother Fazl Mahmood told BBC Urdu he was surprised by the incident. He said Fazl Shakoor Khan was travelling from Charsadda to Peshawar for a parliamentary committee and assembly session with a driver and a gunman. When they reached the motorway toll plaza, they were stopped and the tyres of the vehicle were fired upon.

Secretary Mohammad Alam said the unknown men later drove the driver and gunman a short distance and released them, but took the minister to an unknown location. He said he did not know who they were but they were wearing black uniforms.

The KP Assembly held an emergency session on Monday evening. Speaker Babar Saleem Swati asked staff to play a video that he said was recorded at the time of the alleged abduction; BBC Urdu said it could not independently verify the video.

In the session, Chief Minister Afridi said provincial cabinet members were not safe, that attacks were happening and that men in plain clothes were trying to abduct them. He said over the past three days there had been actions in KP: first plainclothes men removed banners, then a youth convention in Dera Ismail Khan was attacked, and now provincial ministers had been targeted. He said the security situation in the province was known to all, and if someone came in plain clothes to seize a person, there would be a defensive response because it was not known who the attackers were.

Afridi said the incidents would not stop PTI from its protest on 27 September. “PTI was peaceful, is peaceful and will remain peaceful. We will hold the 27 September protest within the constitution and the law,” he said.

The incident came after PTI announced a long march to Islamabad on 27 September. The federal government has said that, in light of the Islamabad High Court’s decision, PTI will not be allowed to protest or close roads in Islamabad.

The KP Assembly website says Fazl Shakoor Khan was elected MPA from Charsadda in 2024 and is currently minister for public health engineering. He has been elected to the assembly four times since 2008, previously associated with the Awami National Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, and joined PTI before the 2018 elections.