A job well done: Dauntless Gilgit DIG prepares to call it a day

Set to retire on May 5, Ali Sher solved several high-profile cases and led countless operations in G-B.

GILGIT:

After an illustrious, and often dangerous, career in the police force spanning 40 years, Gilgit Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ali Sher is set to retire on May 5.

Sher led dozens of operations in the city in several high-profile cases and the last major case he spearheaded was the killing of a police superintendent, army colonel and captain in Chilas town in August last year. The officials were investigating the earlier Nanga Parbat massacre wherein 10 foreign mountaineers and their Pakistani guide were shot dead by terrorists.

“Nearly all the accused involved in the killing of the police and army officials have been arrested and I must acknowledge the key role of locals as well as other agencies for this success,” Sher told members of the Masjid Board at his office on Thursday. “It was a tough assignment to trace and then arrest the killers, but we did it,” he said.

The board, comprising Shia and Sunni elders, was constituted in 2012 to help ease sectarian tensions in the region following several violent incidents in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Sher also supervised operations against militants who attacked passenger buses in separate sectarian incidents in 2012 in which more than 40 people were killed. In addition, it was Sher who held negotiations with locals in Nagar Valley to seek the release of more than 35 people held hostage by members of a rival sect the same year.

Talking about the voluntary handover of a cleric accused of orchestrating the killing of 10 passengers in Chilas in 2012, Sher said, “It was a pleasant surprise when the grand jirga of Diamer handed us the main accused who happened to be the area’s top cleric, Muzammil Shah. We didn’t expect it at the time.”

Sher said he plans to spend the rest of his life with his family – something he sorely missed during his long career which saw him spending a lot of time away from home.

Members of the Masjid Board praised Sher’s role in maintaining law and order in the region and commended his unbiased services, adding a man of his stature and commitment would be difficult to replace.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2014.