PHOTO: EXPRESS

Maulana Ismail Derwish, the former amir of defunct Siph-e-Sahaba for district Peshawar, and his police guard were gunned down by unidentified motorcyclists in Peshawar on Thursday night.A police official told The Express Tribune that Derwish was traveling in a Khyber car along with his guard Ayub when the attackers opened fire at them in Chairman Daftar area on Phandu Road.“The gunman was killed on the spot while he [Derwish] was critically wounded, and later succumbed to his injuries at Lady Reading Hospital,” said the official, adding that it was clearly a target killing incident.Derwish, who was also reportedly contesting by-elections from PK-78 as ASWJ candidate, had served multiple times as the party's provincial chief. These days, the organisation had been dissolved with new elections planned.“Maulana Ismial Derwish was a well known SSP leader which is nowadays known as Ahle-Sunnat-Wal-Jamat after the outfit was banned by the Musharaf government,” added the official, adding that police reached the spot and cordoned off the entire locality.“Our teams are inspecting the site of the attack and a search operation has also been initiated in the area,” he said.