Anger, mystery mark slain cop’s funeral
ISLAMABAD: There was sorrow and anger at the funeral of superintendent of police, Tahir Khan Dawar, who was laid to rest in Peshawar on Thursday night.
Mystery surrounds the death of this decorated Peshawar-based police officer, who went missing on October 26 during a visit to Islamabad.
Dawar’s body was discovered in Afghanistan more than two weeks after he was reported missing. Eyewitnesses say his body bore “signs of torture”. It is now believed that a splinter group of the Islamic State had abducted and taken him to Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, where he was brutally murdered.
Dawar had been attacked twice in the past because of the police operations he led against the Taliban in Pakistan. He was popular among his colleagues and was widely seen to have played a key role in Peshawar’s anti-terrorism drives.
Despite these credentials, what is surprising, according to observers, is that the Pakistan government continued to remain silent over his disappearance in Islamabad, merely issuing a statement after his death was announced.
After the killing was confirmed, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan issued a statement condemning the killing and he ordered an inquiry into the matter.
The government demanded that the body be returned to Pakistan. Soon after, Afghan officials handed over Dawar’s body to a Pakistani delegation at the Torkham border, where it was received by the state minister for interior, Shehryar Afridi, other government officials and the slain cop’s family members.
While the government is blaming the Afghans for the murder, Dawar’s family has asked for an impartial international inquiry to determine how he went missing in Islamabad and resurfaced in Afghanistan.
His son, Amjad Dawar, told those assembled at the funeral that he had no faith in the government investigating the matter. Many at the funeral expressed their anger at the manner in which the government handled the case.
Member of Parliament, Mohsin Dawar, told the gathering, “We reject an internal inquiry. We know that our investigation authorities cannot question certain powers. This requires an international inquiry commission.”
Observers say that he was pointing to Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agencies of perhaps having some role in the murder of the police official.
For its part, the military has condemned the murder. But public anger is directed towards the ISI, which many suspect may have a hand in Dawar’s disappearance.
Many in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province believe that Dawar may have crossed the line in his pursuit of militants, and thus, damaged the relations between IS splinter groups and Pakistan’s intelligence agencies.
The daily Dawn said in an editorial, “With few, if any, established facts at the moment and the government attempting to deflect questions, it is not clear yet how or why Tahir Khan Dawar was found dead in Afghanistan.”