Grisly record: Inspector Baharuddin Babar murdered in SITE industrial area

The policeman was shot at least eight times in the head, chest and arms.

KARACHI:

The killing of a senior police inspector, Baharuddin Babar, on New Year’s Eve raised the number of casualties of police officials to 172 in 2013, making it the worst year in the history of the Karachi police.

The inspector was gunned down in an act of target killing in Karachi’s SITE Industrial Area, while provincial assembly member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Arshad Vohra, escaped a bomb attack on Tuesday.

Around 11:45am, armed motorcyclists opened indiscriminate fire at the white coloured Suzuki Mehran of Babar near Bab-e-Khyber. Babar was on his way to the office in Frontier Colony.

Witnesses say that at least two armed men carried out the attack. “The culprits were wearing shalwar kameez and they ran towards Bawani Chali,” said the witnesses. “They (culprits) also resorted to indiscriminate fire while fleeing.”

He was shot at least eight times in the head, chest and arms and died on the spot. The body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for an autopsy. The police has recovered at least seven empty shells of 9mm pistols from the crime scene and sent them to the forensics division.

Reacting on the information, senior police officials, including Karachi Additional IG Shahid Hayat, CID Additional IG Iqbal Mehmood and CID’s Anti Extremist Cell chief SP Chaudhry Aslam Khan, reached the hospital to inquire about the incident.

“The morale of the Karachi police will not be bogged down after such cowardly attacks,” said Hayat while talking to the media. “Babar was a brave police officer and his services to the department would always be remembered.”

Babar had joined the police force as a head constable in 1984. He had been posted at several police stations and specialised units of the Karachi police, including the Crime Investigation Department, the Criminal Investigation Agency and the Special Investigation Unit. He had also taken part in the Karachi operation against a political party in 1990s. He had also been posted in Lyari’s police stations and a prominent Lyari gangster, Arshad Pappu’s father, Lal Muhammad aka Haji Lalu, had surrendered to him.

He had, however, faced a departmental inquiry for years after notorious gangster Rehman Baloch escaped from his custody. After the inquiries, he was posted at the CID’s Anti-Extremist Cell and was promoted to the DSP rank. Later, he was demoted to the inspector’s rank after the apex court took notice of the out-of-turn promotions. Before his death, he was serving at the AVCC with the additional charge of DSP for district West after he was transferred from CID’s AEC about one-and-a-half month ago.

He was a close aide of SP Khan. The police officials concerned said that they were not sure about the group behind the incident. “Nothing could be said exactly about the group as we have yet to initiate an investigation,” said SP Khan. Babar’s funeral prayers were offered at the police headquarters in Garden.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2014.