PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police have sacrificed the most number of cops during the last almost 10 years and they include officers up to the rank of additional inspector general (Ad IG) down to constables. “As many as 1,133 policemen have been killed in the attacks all over the province since January 2006,” Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Establishment Fida Hassan Shah told The News. The official added that a total of 1,508 policemen were killed in various kinds of attacks in the province since 1971.The increase in violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent years could be gauged from the fact that the police casualties remained 375 in 35 years from 1971 to 2005, but the figure shot up to 1,133 in less than a decade. All those cops killed during the period were hit by suicide attackers, their cars and police stations were bombed and fell victim to target killing and rocket attacks as the violence increased in the province in 2006. The worst year was 2009 when 207 cops were killed, followed by 176 in 2008, 148 in 2011, 127 in 2013, 109 in 2010, 108 in 2007 and 101 in 2014. As many as 31 policemen have been killed in attacks in 2015 so far. Some of those killed in the last decade include the most decorated policemen such as Additional IG Safwat Ghayur and Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Malik Mohammad Saad. Both were attacked by suicide bombers. Another DIG Abid Ali was killed by armed men in Matani near the semi-tribal territory of Darra Adamkhel when he was on way from Bannu, his station of duty, to Peshawar.KP Police is observing the Martyrs’ Day on the death anniversary of Safwat Ghayur on August 4 to pay homage to all those cops who sacrificed their lives. The Martyrs’ Day will be observed every year now. Camps are being held at three separate places of all the districts on daily basis while the main function to be chaired by Chief Minister Parvez Khattak will be held at the Peshawar Police Lines named after Malik Mohammad Saad on Tuesday. All the police officers in the city have been tasked to organise events on the day and ahead to pay tributes to the martyred cops.In terms of casualties of the police force in the last decade, Peshawar tops the list among the 25 districts of the troubled province.The city is surrounded by tribal areas from three sides where militants have hideouts. Peshawar is followed by Swat, once a stronghold of militants where military operation had to be launched in 2009, and Bannu district. Those killed in the provincial capital include the most decorated cops in the history of the province and even the country. Abid Ali was the first one who was killed in November 2006 when armed men opened fire on his car on Kohat Road near Matani. A couple of months later, the then Capital City Police Officer Malik Mohammad Saad was killed on January 27, 2007 in a suicide attack near Qissa Khwani in Peshawar. A deputy superintendent of police (DSP), Khan Raziq, and many policemen and civilians were among those killed along with Malik Saad. Several police officers were also wounded in the attack. Safwat Ghayur, who was leading a series of actions against the militants in Peshawar and Darra Adamkhel as commandant Frontier Constabulary, was targeted by a suicide bomber on August 4, 2010, when he left the FC headquarters in Peshawar Cantonment without any security. Apart from the three senior most officers, two SPs of the rural circle, Kalam Khan and Khurshid Khan and SP Investigation Hilal Haider were also killed in Peshawar. Khurshid Khan was killed in a militant attack on a post in Matani while Kalam Khan and Hilal Haider were killed in suicide attacks in Pishtakhara and Qissa Khwani, respectively, in 2012. The other senior officials who were killed during the period include district police officer Dir Lower Khurshid Khan and DPO Bannu Iqbal Marwat. The number of the martyred junior officials and jawans is too high. Some of them are yet to get the compensation package and other benefits that were promised by the government in recognition of their sacrifices.
