1,430 policemen martyred in KP since 2000

PESHAWAR: As many as 285 policemen had lost lives in different incidents in Khyber Pakhtun-khwa from 1970 till 1999 but the number increased manifold from 2000 to 2019 when 1430 police officers and cops were martyred in suicide attacks, bomb blasts, target killings and ambushes.

As per the official record, 1715 policemen have lost lives in KP in the last almost five decades.

The years from 2007 till 2014 proved to be the worst when hundreds of senior and junior cops were attacked in the province, particularly Peshawar. Over 1300 policemen were martyred during the last 11 years.The KP police have started preparations to pay tribute to the martyrs of the force on August 4, the day that is observed as Martyrs Day for the last many years.

Those who were martyred during the last almost 12 years included two additional inspectors general of police, two deputy inspectors general of police, six superintendents of police and 19 acting SPs or DSPs and a large number of junior officers.

Over 950 constables were martyred in terrorist attacks, suicide bombings, ambushes and target killings since 2006.The incidents of attack on police and other force have recorded a decrease over the last almost five years. The worst year for police in KP was 2009 when 207 policemen, including one SP, 3 DSPs and 4 inspectors were martyred in different terrorist attacks. According to KP police record, 28 cops were martyred in different attacks in the province in 2006, 107 in 2007, 176 in 2008, 207 in 2009, 101 in 2010 and 148 in 2011.

Safwat Ghayur was the senior most officers of the KP Police who sacrificed his life in a suicide attack on his car on August 4, 2010. The office where the city police chief sits is named after another martyr. The Peshawar Police Lines were named after Malik Mohammad Saad, a former CCPO Peshawar who was martyred along with many other policemen and civilians in a suicide attack in January 2007.

The first senior officer martyred in KP was the then DIG Bannu Region Abid Ali who along with driver was shot dead on Kohat Road in December 2006. In Jan 2007, the then CCPO Peshawar Malik Saad was targeted by a suicide bomber when he along with other senior officials was inspecting security of the route of a Muharram procession in Dhakki Dalgaraan, near Qissa Khwani. DSP Khan Raziq and others were also martyred in the attack. This was just the beginning of an unending series of attacks on security personnel and civilians all over Pakistan.

Safwat Ghayur, an Additional IGP who was commanding Frontier Constabulary, was targeted by a suicide bomber soon after he left his office in the FC headquarters in Peshawar Saddar on August 4, 2010.

Another Ad IG Mohammad Ashraf Noor was targeted by a suicide bomber in Hayatabad when he was on his way to office in November 2017.

Among the SPs, Iqbal Marwat was the youngest who died in a suicide bombing in February 2010. Another DPO, Khurshid Khan of Lower Dir, along with ex-district nazim Alamzeb lost life during an encounter with terrorism in March 2009.

Peshawar lost three SPs, Kalam Khan, Khursheed Khan and Hilal Haider, during the year 2012. Kalam Khan and Hilal Haider were targeted separately by suicide bombers while Khursheed Khan was killed during an encounter with militants in Matani.

A senior police officer from KP, Hilal Khan, along with two senior army officers lost lives in an ambush in Chilas town of Gilgit-Baltistan in 2013 while ASP Salman Ayaz embraced martyrdom in Rawalpindi in 2007.

Sajid Khan Mohmand posted as DPO Qilla Abdullah, martyred in a blast in Chaman few years back was also from KP. Belonging to the Mohmand tribe and born in Shabqadar town of the Charsadda district, Sajid Mohmand joined the police force as deputy superintendent of police in 1988.