Officer and a gentleman: Sukhera bows out as Punjab police chief

Officer shares some of the achievements during his tenure.

LAHORE: Monday was the last day of Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera as the Punjab Inspector General of Police as he is retiring from service after reaching the age of superannuation.

On the last day of his service, Sukhera held an informal meeting with crime reporters at his office and spoke of the achievements during his service which spanned more than 35 years. The policeman said he started as an ASP in the 80s and the dynamics of crime and police’s responsibilities had changed drastically since. The outgoing IGP said street crime was not as rampant during his time as an ASP and general security was not such an issue.

He added watchman etc would help the force in policing during those times. “With the passage of time, cities grew due to rapid urbanisation and a population explosion. The rate of crime and modus operandi also changed. After 2002, police started facing the challenge of terrorism for which it was neither prepared nor trained,” he said.

As additional CTD IG, he, for the first time started updating, organising and building the capacity of police as a terrorism-fighting force. The police updated a training school for the purpose and started a a system to profile terrorists.

Sukhera added when he was posted as Balochistan IGP, the province was repeatedly hit by terror attacks. The outgoing IGP was attacked himself in three separate suicide blasts for doing his job.

In one attack, a truck loaded with over 500kg of explosives hit his house. In terms of explosives used, it was the second-most potent terror attack in Pakistan’s history after the Marriot Hotel which involved 1,000kg.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2017.