Muhammad Gul may be an ordinary fish-seller in Peshawar but his claim to fame is his ability to dip his bare hands into scalding oil to retrieve fried fish.

“It is my passion,” says Gul, who is 30 years of age.

A father of four, he established a fish-hut in the Ring Road area of the provincial capital many years ago and has since then developed a reputation for plunging his hands into a boiling vat of oil to pick out the fried fish.