KHYBER: The terrified family members of slain tribal journalist Khalil Jibran have made a passionate appeal for their immediate relocation to a safer place after unidentified persons torched a portion of their commercial building situated adjacent to their house in Sultankhel area of Landi Kotal.

In their emotional voice messages shared with this scribe, Jibran Khalil, 17-year-old son, and Hoor Afridi, 15-year-old daughter, of Khalil Jibran contended that they were feeling highly insecure after the brutal murder of their father on June 18 and later torching a snooker club in their commercial property on Sunday night.

Jibran Khalil, an intermediate student, said that they were still in trauma after the murder of their father. He added that unidentified persons were bent upon depriving them of their only source of income by targeting their commercial property.

He said that those elements also threatened them of `dire consequences` if the snooker club was not immediately shut down. `This market is now our only source of income while we now feel highly insecure and frightened after the Sunday night incident, he added.

Hoor Afridi, a 10th grader, said in a choked voice that their entire family was under tremendous mental stress as miscreants could even barge into their house anytime after burning their snooker club.

She was also apprehensive about continuation of her own and two other sisters` education as they could not move out of their house after the killing oftheir father for fear of any reprisal from the people involved in the murder of their father. `Our father was very keen about our education and wanted us to complete our studies,` she added.

Both Jibran Khalil and Hoor Afridi insisted that their lives were under constant threat and only an immediate relocation of their family to a safer place could provide them a temporary relief and much needed safety. They said that they were so scared and terrified that they could not dare to register an FIR of the torching incident.

They appealed to federal and provincial government to seriously look into the two horrific incidents by constituting professional investigation teams along with providing them with foolproof security and adequate compensation for the loss of their father and burning of their commercial property.

Meanwhile, DPO Saleem Abbas Kulachi told Dawn that more than 12 suspects were made part of the investigation into the murder case of Khalil Jibran but there was no major headway or progress in the investigation so far.

He also said that although no FIR of the snooker club torching incident was registered with police, they had collected DVR, samples of broken glasses, brunt clothes of snooker table and handwritten pamphlets from the site.

Sources said that district administration and security officials were contemplating installation of close circuit security cameras at suitable places around Mazreena area where Khalil Jibran was murdered while checkposts would also be established at Sultankhel market to keep an eye on the movements ofundesirable elements.