Delay in shifting Dawar’s body to Pakistan adds to family’s pain

PESHAWAR: An unexplained delay in transferring the body of slain police officer Muhammad Tahir Khan Dawar from Afghanistan to Pakistan added to the agony of his family and friends over the past two days.

The entire force of the capital city police waited for the second consecutive day on Tuesday to receive the body of SP Tahir Dawar who was found dead in Afghanistan a day earlier. Cops were sent to the border town of Torkham to receive the body for the past two days.

A large number of his family members, friends and people from the Dawar tribe had been waiting at his residence in Hayatabad, Peshawar, for the body of the deceased police officer to be brought home.

"We have been waiting to receive the body. Everyone of us is in pain," one of his colleagues Nisar Ahmad told The News. Many on the social media posted pictures of the five-year-old daughter of Tahir Dawar with prayers and messages of condolences for the family.

In the picture, she is holding a portrait of her father with tears in her eyes. She is demanding his safe return. Apparently, the picture was taken when she joined other family members and elders of the Dawar tribe to hold a press conference in Peshawar to ask the government to recover her missing father.

Tahir Dawar had gone missing in Islamabad on October 26 and nobody in the government and the police had any clue about his whereabouts. Teams of the Peshawar Police were at the Torkham crossing point on the second day on Tuesday to receive the body of the slain senior cop. However, they didn't receive it till late Tuesday evening. The police had even made arrangements for his funeral prayers at the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines in Peshawar since Tuesday.

KP Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai told reporters that the police party and officials waited for the body of Dawar at Torkham. He added the body could not be handed over on Wednesday.

The minister said the Afghan authorities have confirmed the death of Tahir Dawar, whose funeral prayer will be offered in Peshawar. He added that the body was likely to be handed over to Pakistani authorities today (Thursday). More pictures of the body, claimed to be of Tahir Dawar, were in circulation on the social media on Wednesday. As he was stated to be a poet, his poetry was also put on the social media.

The Afghan government had informed the Pakistan embassy in Kabul that the body was found by local people in Dur Baba village in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province bordering Khyber and Mohmand tribal districts. It said the body was exhumed and would be handed over to the Pakistan consulate in Jalalabad. The process took a lot longer than anticipated.

"The mysterious tragedy of Tahir Dawar is heartbreaking. May he rest in peace. On this I talked to both Kabul and Jalalabad. The victim's body, now at a morgue in Jalalabad, will be handed over with full dignity and respect expeditiously," Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Dr Omar Zakhilwal tweeted. He added the Afghan government will investigate how Dawar ended up on that side.

Later, it was learnt that the body had been delivered to Pakistan’s consulate in Jalalabad and was being transported to Pakistan via Torkham. Tahir Dawar, who was serving as SP Rural Peshawar, went missing from the federal capital where he had gone on a short leave on October 26. None of the guards of the SP were accompanying him when he left for Islamabad.

The missing SP belonged to North Waziristan. He was promoted as acting SP only a couple of months ago, though his service card found on his badly wounded body said he was deputy superintendent of police. He survived a number of attempts on his life, including two suicide attacks in Bannu in recent years. As family and friends had been demanding his safe recovery, nothing was heard from any senior official of the KP government or the police force. Minister of State for Interior Shahryar Afridi told the media he cannot comment on it as it was a sensitive issue.

The colleagues and tribesmen of Dawar tribe were angry over the government and police for failing to make any progress in the recovery of the officer despite lapse of over two weeks. There was severe criticism on the performance of the police and the government, both federal and provincial, which failed to recover its own officer. People kept asking as to how they will provide security to a common man if they cannot protect their own officers.