A peek into attacks on police officers

LAHORE: Some seven months and one week after his colleague SSP Special Investigation Unit Karachi Farooq Awan was unsuccessfully targeted by terrorists on September 25, 2014 in the Pakistani port city, SSP Rao Anwar has also luckily managed to escape a frightening bid on his life on Saturday, writes Sabir Shah.
While SSP Farooq Awan was first attacked in 2010, when he was just hit in the leg fortunately, SSP Rao Anwar continues to flirt with danger for the last 20 years.
Along with the assassinated chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party Benazir Bhutto, former Sindh Chief Minister late Abdullah Shah, former Federal Interior Minister late Major General (R) Naseerullah Khan Babar, a slain SP Shah Muhammad and a Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shah, Rao Anwar (an SHO at that time) was also nominated in the murder case of Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain’s 62-year-old brother Nasir Hussain and 27-year-old nephew Arif Hussain in December 1995.
An FIR No. 130/97, under sections 302, 364-A, 109 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code, was registered in this regard at the Gulberg Karachi police station by MQM leader Shoaib Bukhari against all the afore-mentioned people.
In a statement issued on December 7, 1995, MQM office-bearers had blamed the then PPP government and the law enforcement agencies for the arrests of Nasir and Arif from their residence in Karachi’s Samanabad locality.
Though the Rangers had publicly denied any hand in the arrests, MQM Coordination Committee Chairman Ishtiaq Azhar had expressed apprehensions that both Nasir and his son might have been killed by the law enforcement agencies.
On December 9, 1995, the badly mutilated corpses of both Nasir and Arif were found in an isolated area of Gadap Town, Karachi, from where they were removed to the nearest Edhi Centre.
Just a week before the killing of Nasir Hussain and Arif Hussain, the younger brother of the then incumbent Sindh Chief Minister Syed Abdullah Shah was also shot dead in Karachi.
Syed Abdullah Shah’s sibling Ehsan Ali Shah, a government official, was fatally targeted along-with his two friends.
Interestingly, Ehsan Shah, Nasir Hussain and Arif Hussain, who had visibly lost lives due to the PPP-MQM battle of that time, had lived in the same Karachi locality-Samanabad.
While Sindh Chief Minister Syed Abdullah Shah had named Altaf Hussain and three others in the FIR of his brother’s murder case, the MQM Chief had followed suit by accusing the then President Farooq Leghari, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Abdullah Shah, Interior Minister Naseerullah Babar, the then Rangers Director General and a few police officials (already discussed in paragraphs above) of being responsible for his brother’s murder.
Other high-ranking police officials targeted unsuccessfully throughout the country during the last decade or so include sitting 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 with Mushtaq Sukhera on one of the two occasions. On November 17, 2009, Deputy Inspector General, Nizam Shahid Durrani, was seriously wounded in a blast in Quetta.
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.
During the May 2010 terrorist attack on an Ahmadi worship place in Lahore’s Garhi Shahu locality, the then SP Cantt Haider Ashraf (now DIG Operations Punjab) and ASP Civil Lines Lahore Maroof Wahla (now an SP facing an inquiry in the Model Town Lahore firing incident) were also wounded.
Among the unfortunate police officials, who have till date laid their lives in the line of duty, DSP Karachi Abdul Fateh Sangri is the latest addition to this list.
SSP Karachi Crime Investigation Department, Chaudhry Aslam Khan, 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.
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.
The late Shah Mohammad had taken an active part in the Karachi operation during the 1990s against a dominant political party of the city.
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), Commandant of the Frontier Constabulary Safwat Ghayur (martyred on August 4, 2010 in Peshawar), 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).
Not killed by terrorists, but Superintendent Motorway Police Lodhran, Ahmed Raza had also met an unnatural death on March 22, 2015.
SP Ahmed Raza and his three family members were killed in a collision between a car and trailer near Khanewal city.