News Desk

MUZAFFARABAD: A personal security guard of former Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas was shot dead on Friday after his convoy came under fire while travelling through his native constituency via the Tain-Dhalkot area, according to officials and his aides.

Officials said that the convoy of Ilyas, who now heads the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) in the region, had travelled around one-and-a-half kilometres beyond the Tain-Dhalkot bridge over the Jhelum River, when unidentified assailants opened fire from the mountainside at around 1:30pm.

Muhammad Asif, a retired commando from Sudhnoti district serving as one of Ilyas’s security guards, was struck in the head after reportedly moving to shield the former premier. He was critically injured and succumbed to his injuries while being moved to a hospital in Rawalpindi.

Officials said Ilyas remained unharmed and in a video message released later in the day, he alleged that the attack had been carried out by armed members of the banned Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a claim that could not be independently verified.