LAHORE: Khyber Pakhtoon-khwa's Superintendent of Police, Tahir Khan Dawar, whose mutilated body has reportedly been found near Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, is the latest addition to the list of numerous top-raking Pakistani police officials who have till date been targeted or had somehow come in the way of blood-thirsty terrorists having roots both within and outside the country.
While a good number of these officials have embraced martyrdom in the line of duty, some have managed to defeat death. However, seldom have we heard a key top security official getting kidnapped and ruthlessly killed--as has been the case with the unfortunate Tahir Khan Dawar.
Here follow some major incidents in this context:
In November 2017, Additional Inspector General Ashraf Noor was killed in Peshawar along with his guard by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle, as the slain cop was leaving his home for work.
In July 2017, Sajid Khan Mohmand, District Police Officer of Qilla Abdullah (Balochistan), was killed by a suicide blast in the border town of Chaman. DPO Sajid's driver, security guard and 10 other people had perished in this attack.
In February 2017, DIG Traffic Lahore, Ahmed Mubeen, and Acting DIG Operations, Zahid Ikram Gondal, had laid their lives in a suicide blast at Lahore's Faisal Chowk near Punjab Assembly.
In May 2015, SSP Rao Anwar had also luckily managed to escape a frightening bid on his life. He was travelling in an armoured convoy through Karachi's Malir Link Road when the assailants on motorbikes and car attacked him.
This was not the first time that SSP Rao was attacked. In April 2012, when he was making his way to the Malir court for a meeting with a sessions judge regarding an inquiry into the murder of former Malir Bar Association president Salahuddin and his son Ali, a suicide bomber had hit his armored vehicle. The attack had left five people dead and injured eighteen others, but SSP Rao had survived.
Chaudhry Aslam Khan, SSP Karachi Crime Investigation Department, had embraced martyrdom in January 2014 along with a dozen other police officers. He had earlier survived an attack on September 19, 2011, although his house was destroyed by the blast.
In September 2014, SSP Special Investigation Unit Karachi Farooq Awan was unsuccessfully targeted by terrorists in Karachi. SSP Farooq Awan was first attacked in 2010, when he was just hit in the leg fortunately.
Former Punjab IG Mushtaq Sukhera had dodged death twice in May 2013 and on August 8, 2013, while he was serving as Inspector General Police Balochistan.
It is pertinent to note that the-then CCPO Quetta Mir Zubair was also accompanying Mushtaq Sukhera on one of the two occasions.
On September 18, 2013, SP Sariab Area (Quetta) Basheer Ahmed Barohi, had managed to live on after his official vehicle was fired at by unknown gunmen.
On May 25, 2013 District Police Officer Kohat, Dilawar Bangash, was injured when militants ambushed his convoy on the Indus Highway near Mattani, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He was on his way to Kohat from Peshawar along with his escort.
Deputy Inspector General Operations Quetta Fayyaz Sumbal and Deputy Superintendent Police Quetta Shamsur Rehman were fatally hit by terrorists in Quetta on August 8, 2013.
On May 28, 2012, SP Shah Mohammad was assassinated in Karachi.
During the May 2010 terrorist attack on an Ahmadi worship place in Lahore’s Garhi Shahu locality, the then SP Cantt Haider Ashraf (later DIG Operations Punjab) and ASP Civil Lines Lahore Maroof Wahla (later an SP facing an inquiry in the Model Town Lahore firing incident) were also wounded.
Iqbal Marwat, a young DPO of Bannu, was another senior police officer who died in a suicide bombing in February 2010.
In May 2012, SP Shah Muhammad was shot down in Karachi.
The late Shah Mohammad had taken an active part in the Karachi operation during the 1990s against a dominant political party of the city. Four gunmen had targeted SP Shah Mohammad when he reached his friend’s clinic in Korangi for a regular medical check-up. Shah Muhammad's friend, Dr. Dilshad Ghauri, and a gunman Riaz were also criticially injured in this attack. Both the injured had succumbed to injuries on the way to hospital. He was the SHO at Gulberg police station where brother and nephew of MQM chief Altaf Hussain were gunned down in 1995. He was among the nominated culprits in FIR 130/97 registered on the complaint of MQM leader Shoaib Bukhari.
While the first FIR in this case was lodged at the Gadap police station in 1995 after the bodies of Altaf Hussain's brother and nephew were found, a second FIR (130/1997) was lodged in 1997 at the Gulberg police station on a complaint of Shoaib Bukhari, a member of the MQM coordination committee, under Sections 302, 364-A, 109 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code against six persons — Pakistan People’s Party slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto, former chief minister of Sindh late Abdullah Shah, former federal interior minister late Major General (retd) Nasirullah Khan Babar, the then SHO Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan (now SSP), and the-then SHO Shah Mohammad and Sub-Inspector, Ahmed Shah.
On November 17, 2009, Deputy Inspector General, Nizam Shahid Durrani, was seriously wounded in a blast in Quetta.
In November 2006, the-then DIG Bannu, Abid Ali, was killed when armed men had opened fire on his car on Kohat Road near Matani in Khyber Pakhtoonkwa province.
Other top-notch police officials killed in recent years include the likes of Chief of Peshawar City Police Malik Saad (targeted successfully on January 27, 2007), Police Surgeon Syed Baqir Shah (shot dead on December 29, 2011 in Quetta), Senior Superintendent of Police Khurshid Khan (killed in an attack on a police check-post at Peshawar-Kohat Road on October 15, 2012), Superintendent of Police Hilal Haider Khan (killed by a suicide bomber in Peshawar on November 7, 2012), Senior Superintendent of Police Hilal Ahmed (killed on August 6, 2013 in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Chilas town), SP Investigation Quetta Jamil Kakar (shot dead in Quetta on September 7, 2012) and SP Kalam Khan (killed in a suicide attack in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa on March 15, 2012).