Peshawar cop survives 15 terrorist bullets
Lying on a rickety wooden bed in his house situated in Peshawar’s Pokh Jumat area, Constable Mushtaq tears up as he recalls the moment that ended his job and mobility; the day that 15 bullets were pounded into his body.
On a fateful July morning last year, terrorists launched a brazen attack on a police mobile that changed his life. Four of Mushtaq’s colleagues were killed but he survived, against all odds, despite being seriously wounded.
“I was hit with several bullets on my body but I did not feel anything as I was firing back,” he says, his voice thick with emotion.
“It was only until I took a bullet on my head that I lost consciousness and woke up several days later in a hospital.”
Almost a year has gone by since the incident but Mushtaq’s injuries haven’t showed signs of going away. His left arm was severely injured but has been secured with an iron rod as he suffered broken bones in the attack. With bullets still lodged in his chest and throat, mobility is still very difficult and although the bullet in his head was removed, others remain in his body.
Soon after the attack, Mushtaq moved to a rented house with his wife and three children having sold his previous home for a sum of Rs 700,000. The exorbitant hospital bills for treatment left him with no savings.
“Now I have no more money left; what will I do? How do I send my children to school, how do I care for my family?” he cries.
Mushtaq used to be a member of the province’s 1,000-member strong Special Police Officer (SPO) unit. Salaried at Rs 15,000 a month, this force performs the same duties as regular policemen but does not enjoy job security as its members are hired on a contract basis.
After the attack, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had announced compensation of Rs 100,000 for Mushtaq. However, that is yet to be translated into reality.
Poorly trained and ill-equipped, policemen across the country are the first line of defence in civil spaces. They often make headlines for being caught in the cross hairs during raids or encounters with militants, or when their convoys are attacked militants.
Just this year, Peshawar has lost at least 20 police officers. Since 2012, the deaths of at least 250 policemen have been reported, with many more injured in the line of duty.
Data reveals a downward trend in the number of police killings over the past four years. At least 203 were killed in 2012, followed by 126 in 2013, 102 in 2014 and 27 in 2015.
There has been a 70 per cent decrease in police killings in the first six months of 2015 as compared to the same time period last year. Former Soviet soldier Bakhretdin Khakimov came to Afghanistan to fight the mujahideen more than three decades ago. Today he has a new life as caretaker of a museum celebrating the jihadists’ victory over the Red Army.
Khakimov, who now goes by the name Sheikh Abdullah, says he will never return to Russia.
On a wall of the museum in the western Afghan city of Herat, one black and white photo stands out from the portraits of jihadi heroes — Abdullah as a young man in a Russian shapka hat adorned with Soviet military insignia.
The bearded 50- something, who today prefers the traditional Afghan pakol hat, has worked at Herat’s Jihad Museum since 2013. Before that he worked as a healer, prescribing medicinal herbs to locals.
He arrived in Afghanistan as an officer in the military in-