Sindh IGP offers to step down but SHC extends stay

KARACHI: IGP AD Khowaja requested the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday to vacate its interim order about his transfer because he had decided to voluntarily step down in the interest of the police and public order.

After hearing the arguments of the petitioners’ counsel, the SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Munib Akhtar extended the interim stay order against Khowaja’s transfer until further orders and adjourned the hearing until May 18.  hours," Nangarhar Governor Gulab Mangal told reporters.

"Six people, including four civilians and two policemen, were killed and 17 others wounded," he added. A health worker told AFP that many of those brought to hospital suffered gunshot wounds.

An RTA photographer said he fled the building as soon as the gunfight erupted, but many of his colleagues were stuck inside until the assailants were killed. Nangarhar province is a hotbed of IS militants, who claimed Wednesday´s attack through its propaganda agency Amaq, the SITE Intelligence Group said.

The Pentagon has reportedly asked the White House to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to break the deadlocked fight against the Taliban. US troops in Afghanistan number about 8,400 today, and there are another 5,000 from Nato allies, who also mainly serve in an advisory capacity -- a far cry from the US presence of more than 100,000 six years ago.

Wednesday´s attack underscores the growing dangers faced by media workers in Afghanistan as the security situation worsens. The country suffered its deadliest year on record for journalists in 2016, according to the Afghan Journalists´ Safety Committee (AJSC), adding that the country is the second most dangerous for reporters in the world after Syria.

As least 13 journalists were killed last year, AJSC said, claiming that the Taliban were behind at least 10 of the deaths. In January last year, seven employees of popular TV channel Tolo, which is often critical of the insurgents, were killed in a Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul in what the militant group said was revenge for "spreading propaganda" against them.