PESHAWAR/Islamabad - Body of Superintendent of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Police Tahir Dawar will be handed over to Pakistan today (Thursday) at Torkham border.
Hailing from North Waziristan district of KP, SP Tahir Dawar had gone missing mysteriously from the federal capital on October 26 and was found dead in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province on Tuesday.
The brave officer, who was a sign of fear for the terrorists and criminals, left a widow, seven children and aged mother behind.
Earlier in the day, Afghanistan confirmed recovery of a body with service card of Superintendent Police Tahir Khan Dawar, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
According to media reports quoting KP Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai, Dawar’s body will arrive at Torkham boarder from where it will be dispatched to Peshawar for offering his funeral prayers. Later, the body will be handed over to the family of the slain police officer.
Yousafzai said that a team of KP police had been sent to Torkham border to receive the body, but it returned in the evening. The body will be handed over to police today (Thursday), he added.
Tahir earned a reputation while serving in Bannu where he bravely fought against militants and criminals, and two suicide attacks in that district.
At the time of kidnapping, he was serving as head of Peshawar police’s rural circle, and he was reportedly without guards when he went to G-10 Park reportedly for walk. His body was identified by locals at Dur Baba locality in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
Tahir had joined police in 1995 as a junior officer and rose through the ranks to become superintendent of police in Peshawar to lead suburban operations.
He was transferred from Bannu to Peshawar as he continued to receive threats from militants even after two suicide attacks that he luckily survived. One of the attacks came at his residence.
For being a professional police officer, Dawar was made acting SP rural almost three months ago. Before that, he had also served as DSP of University Town and SHO Faqirabad police station in Peshawar.
Furthermore, he had a stint with the Federal Investigation Agency at Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar as well. He had also represented Pakistan in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.
On Tuesday, photos of the SP’s badly-tortured body with a hand-written Pashto letter placed on his chest went viral on social media. A paper found on the body carried the name of Wilayat-e-Khorasan, the nomenclature the militant Islamic State (IS) group uses to refer to Pak-Afghan region.
It referred to SP Dawar with his first name and said that the cop who had arrested and killed several militants had “met his fate”.
Police said they would investigate where the officer was killed and what group was responsible for the murder.
The government had decorated Tahir for showing extraordinary courage in the face of terrorists, suicide bombers and hardened criminals.
The KP that led from the front in the war on terror was deeply troubled over disappearance of the brave police officer. His seniors termed him a capable and hardworking officer.
A foreign office statement issued earlier said: “Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed Pakistan Embassy in Kabul that a body was found by locals in Nangarhar province on Tuesday. The Afghan side has confirmed that the service card of Superintendent of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Police Tahir Khan Dawar has also been recovered with the body.”
It added: “After its hand over to the local police, the body was brought to Mohmand Dara district and is being transferred to Jalalabad by Afghan authorities. The body is yet to be received by Consul General of Pakistan in Jalalabad. It will be subsequently transferred to Pakistan through Torkham border after completion of necessary formalities.”
The statement said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was in close contact with the Afghan Embassy, while the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul was also in touch with the Afghan Foreign Ministry.
Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party leader Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar strongly condemned the murder of Tahir Dawar who had gone missing from Islamabad on October 26. In a statement, Senator Khokhar said that the police officer was already on the target of terrorists and his abduction from Islamabad was more concerning.
SP Dawar’s body to reach Peshawar today