Targeted: One policeman, many honorifics

Aslam captured or killed many leaders of the banned LeJ, TTP and SSP to name a few.

KARACHI:

Chaudhry Aslam was the formidable face of the Karachi police. An officer who rose to the ranks of SP without proper qualification, who reached the heights of his career by killing criminals in encounters, who dared to smoke even in front of cameras. But when it came to catching militants, they say he was the best.

He captured or killed many leaders of the banned LeJ, TTP and SSP to name a few.

Aslam was known to his colleagues by several names, ‘encounter specialist’, ‘baba police’, ‘yaaron ka yaar’ [friend of friends]. He served as an SHO in several police stations, and worked as the head of the Lyari Task force – a position in which he killed up to 50 alleged gangsters.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2014.