In the line of duty: Police fails to honour modest martyr

Brother says the government has provided no compensation to the bereaved.

PESHAWAR:

It was a cold night of December 2010 when community police constable Abdul Ghani, who had joined the force just two months earlier on a two-year contract, was summoned for duty.

Ghani grabbed his rifle and rushed to the Shahab Khel check post where he remained for three hours before being allowed to return following the arrival of other constables.

Near his house, however, two militants armed with AK-47 rifles stood waiting for him. As soon as Ghani came within close range, the militants opened fire on him. Too stunned to return fire, Ghani died on the spot. He was the brother of peace militia leader Muhammad Fida, who heads the Suliman Khel Aman Lashkar.

After retiring from the army, Ghani started working as a security guard for Rs6,500 a month. It was his brother Fida who insisted he join the community police, which was offering Rs10,000 a month.



Militants were only after Fida and had nothing to do with his family members, but they decided to target Ghani when he joined the police.

“Abdul Ghani was a poor man whose four children are still in school,” Fida told The Express Tribune. He said the police did not pay a single penny in compensation to his family.

“When a policeman is killed in a blast, the provincial government pays Rs0.3 million to the deceased’s family, but Ghani’s family received nothing. This is the way the police honours its martyrs. It is unfortunate that Ghani’s family is living hand-to-mouth, but the police and government are completely ignoring them.”

Fida said the late Bashir Bilour was the only man who compensated families of people killed by militants and that all other politicians ignored them.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2013.