In the line of duty: Preedy station loses third SHO in 2 years

Aijaz Ali Khawaja becomes the 38th policeman to be killed this year

KARACHI:

Preedy police station lost its third SHO in two years to a targeted attack on Thursday. Sub-inspector Aijaz Ali Khawaja became the 38th policeman to be killed in the line of duty in Karachi this year.

SHO Khawaja was going to work in a Toyota Corolla when unidentified assailants on a motorcycle shot at his car, Clifton SP Amjad Hayat told The Express Tribune, adding that his car crashed into another vehicle and went over a sidewalk.

Khawaja received bullet wounds in the head and chest and was rushed to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, said hospital emergency in-charge Dr Seemin Jamali.

"He is the third SHO of the Preedy police station to be killed in the last two years," said SP Hayat.

Inspector Ghazanfar Kazmi, who took part in the 1992 operation against criminals in the city, was targeted in a similar manner on August 13 last year. He was commuting between the police station and his home when assailants shot him near Anklesaria Hospital in Garden.

Meanwhile, Inspector Agha Asad was shot dead on April 10, 2013, by his own gunman in the busy commercial area of Bohri Bazaar in Saddar.

In the aftermath of Thursday's incident, Karachi AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo formed a four-member investigation team, headed by South DIG Dr Jameel Ahmed, to probe Khawaja's murder. "He [Khawaja] was behind the arrests of many hardened criminals but we have no information yet whether he was under any obvious threat," said the police chief.

'This was not the first attack on him'

On Monday, slain SHO Khawaja paid his last visit to his mother's grave in Pahar Marree, near Tando Bago in Badin district. As the news of Thursday's fatal attack emerged, hundreds of his relatives from across the province rushed to Karachi.

"This was not the first attack on him," revealed Mukhtiar Ali, a close relative of the deceased, adding that he had discovered on his last visit to Karachi that Khawaja had been attacked before. "I thought this was a normal occurrence for the city's police officials — I never thought he would be martyred."

Khawaja leaves behind a daughter, three sons and a widow. After the death of his mother, his family — his father Zulfiqar Ali and two younger brothers, Rustam and Tahir — left the village too, coming to Karachi. His four sisters, meanwhile, are spread between Karachi, Golarchi, Badin and Pahar Marree.

According to Mukhtiar, the slain officer joined the police force in 1993 after completing his education from Tando Bago and Badin. "On his occasional visits back home after moving to Karachi, he inspired the younger people with his personality, since he never made himself seem like one of the powerful police officials."

Zaheer, Khawaja's brother-in-law, told The Express Tribune that after the death of his first wife, Khawaja remarried and left his son, Shahzaib Raza, to live with Zaheer till 2004. "It was difficult to keep in touch with Khawaja sahib constantly due to his busy work schedule," he explained.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2015.