Another victim of terrorism: Fallen policeman laid to rest in AJK town

MIRPUR: A policeman who was injured in a terrorist attack on a police hostel in Lahore was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard here on Sunday in the presence of a large number of mourners.

Yasir Ali, 27, who was a trainee warden of Mirpur District Jail, died of his injuries in a hospital in Lahore on Saturday night. His body was driven to his native town of Mirpur under protocol by the Punjab Prisons Police on Sunday morning.  He was presented the guard of honour and laid to rest at a graveyard in Sangot.

The 27-year-old has left behind a widow and two minor sons.

Besides officials of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) police and jail departments, staff of the Mirpur Division administration and hundreds of people from all walks of life offered his funeral prayers, which were led by renowned religious scholar Moulana Bashir Mustafvi.

Commissioner Mirpur Division Raja Amjad Pervez, Deputy Inspector General Prisoners Raja Muhammad Razaq, Mirpur Senior Superintendent of Police Chaudhry Munir Hussain, Superintendent District Jail Irshad Mirza, Colonel (retd) Nisaar Shah, Deputy Superintendent Mirpur Jail Yasir Kazmi and others attended the funeral.

Ali had gone to Lahore on a capacity building course along with other officials of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa jail department.

The officials were residing in a hostel rented by the National Prison Academy in Ichra when they were attacked in the early hours of Thursday by around six to eight men armed with automatic weapons and hand-grenades. Nine policemen were killed and eight others injured in the attack.

Ali received five bullet injuries and was shifted to the Services Hospital in critical condition. His demise has raised the death toll from the terrorist attack to 10.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack, which was reminiscent of the storming of the Manawan police training academy in Lahore in 2009.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2012.