Targeted: Counter-terrorism DSP gunned down

PESHAWAR:

Counter-terrorism department (CTD) DSP Bahadur Khan was shot dead by unidentified men in Sheikhabad, Gulbahar Wednesday morning.

The police official was driving with his daughter to her college to drop her off when the assailants ambushed his vehicle and sprayed it with bullets. He was travelling without any guards or protocol vehicles.



Bahadur succumbed to injuries as he was being rushed to Lady Reading Hospital. The attackers managed to flee unchallenged following the incident. His daughter remained unharmed.

“It is beyond doubt an incident of target killing,” said a Gulbahar police station official. He added the attackers were three men who were riding motorbikes armed with 9mm pistols. “Bahadur’s daughter survived the attack,” he said.

According to the police, Bahadur was a resident of Gulbahar No4. The officer left behind his wife, a daughter, who is a 2nd year student, and three sons. Two of his sons are also police officers. He belonged to Malikdin Khel sub-tribe of the Afridi clan of Khyber Agency but for the past several decades his family had settled in Shagai Hindkyan village on Pajjagi Road.

Bahadur Khan. PHOTO: FILE

Bahadur had recently been promoted to the DSP portfolio. He was a distinguished police officer who had served as the Paharipura and Faqirabad SHO in the past. He was currently posted in the CTD.

The deceased’s funeral prayers were offered at Malik Saad Shaheed Lines and later the body was sent to his ancestral village for burial. Flanked by high-ranking police officials, Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan also attended the funeral. According to a handout issued on Wednesday, the governor condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with the bereaved family.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2015.