Vengeful Taliban leave Badaber family splintered

Many suspects killed elsewhere, others in Afghanistan

PESHAWAR: SPO Zafar Ali Shah, recruited on a two-year term, was instructed to inspect the site of a Badaber IED explosion on February 1, 2014. The Masho Khel resident, paid a fixed monthly salary of Rs15,000, had been delegated the unenviable responsibility of tracking militant movements in the then restive area. A rare police patrol, the intended target, escaped undamaged. Fate, however, would not prove so kind to Shah.

The SPO spotted Suleiman Khel-resident Fazal Shaad covered in dust near the site. Smelling a rat, Shah hastened to stop the suspect. The policeman had just commenced frisking the hardened militant when he lobbed a hand grenade towards a cousin of Shah's carrying an AK-47. In the panic that ensued, the cousin stood overpowered, police rifle taken away.

From the fields where he had taken cover, Shaad shot Shah first. A similar fate awaited his nephews Kausar and Bakhtiar who proceeded to the spot with their father Mukhtiar on hearing Shah's plaintive cries. Shaad was killed by police after. Only Mukhtiar survived.

In 2014, militancy peaked in Peshawar with the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) employing its Khyber Agency hideouts to devastating effect. 'Exemplary retribution' was to be handed out for the killing of one of their best. A decimated Masho Khel hujra (guesthouse) would stand a testament.



Heavily-armed TTP men besieged Shah's house a fortnight after the killing of their comrade. The hujra (guesthouse) was attacked with hand grenades first. The men then scaled a wall and forcibly entered the premises. All men of the family – nine in total – were taken away. Women and children were herded together before being locked in a room.

The men were made to sit in a circle and shot at point blank range. Shah's house was then set ablaze. The women and children managed to escape after breaking a door.

A police team found nine bodies the following morning. All men of the family barring aforementioned Mukhtiar had been killed. Today, addicts masquerading as 'followers of the Syed family' routinely gather at the site to while away time. The 12 men of the family lie buried nearby.

In the wake of the killings garnering wide media coverage, the regional Aman Lashkar claimed the deceased as its own. The peace committee's 'sacrifices' were before the world, it was asserted. Mukammal Shah of the lashkar, however, posited otherwise. "Shah was a volunteer. He secured an SPO contract after." Mukammal said many affiliated with the committee had been killed. "He was one of many."

"The TTP wanted to make an example. The family did not anticipate the massacre. They believed Shaad's death stood 'avenged' with the killings of Shah, Kausar and Bakhtiar," village elder Israr Khan said.

While an FIR of the killings named 14, Peshawar police claim the actual suspect tally stands at 19. Investigation SSP Nisar Khan claimed three of them, Zubair, Ali Haider and Laiq Shah had been nabbed. "Others were killed elsewhere. The remaining fled to Afghanistan. Little can be done," an IO separately told The Express Tribune.

Hand-to-mouth

Thirteen-year-old Intizar has been hired as an apprentice at a Kohat Road workshop. He is paid a measly Rs50 daily to cover conveyance. Intezar was brought to the unit by a kind neighbour.

The boy has trouble expressing himself. Intizar is one of Shah's sons. His recollections are sketchy. "They just came one night and killed everybody."



Having struggled academically, Intizar's mother was keen he mastered a trade. Together with five siblings, they live in a nine-marla kucha in Badaber.

Seventy-year-old Muhammad Akbar said his daughter and grandchildren had initially moved in after Shah's killing. "I own a mere five kanals. How can I support my extended family?"

He said he had bought them the kucha using the Rs500,000 compensation given to Shah's kin. "That is all they got. Not even his monthly salary. Zero, zilch." I cannot support them. My daughter helps at a house. She is paid Rs4,000 per month. The government should look into the matter. A martyr's family ought to be provided for."

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Police Public Relations Director Waqar Khan said while the department was acutely aware of hardships bedevilling families of such recruits, there was little that could be done. "How can a martyred SPO's kin be given their salary considering that the hiring was contractual?" No salary, he said, could be released following the expiration of the two-year period in this case.

Shah's extended family (relatives of those killed in the massacre) is in dire straits too. "An ex-army man's kin constitute an exception. They were awarded a good package," he said. The bloodletting took a toll. Shah's extended family has splintered. "They abandoned whatever little they had. They fear for their children."

Mukhtiar, who was being treated at a hospital for injuries sustained in the February 1 shootout at the time of the massacre, said most relatives were out of touch. "I had no clue. A cousin told me what happened a month after. A dozen killed. I lost my brothers, sons and nephews in separate incidents over a fortnight."

Some relatives have moved to Kohat. Others have relocated to Rawalpindi and Peshawar city. "We don't speak often. Everyone is busy trying to settle and start anew."