Pakistan Police loses another courageous officer to terrorists

High-Ranking Pakistan Police Official Assassinated

By ISMAIL KHAN, New York Times, August 4, 2010
(Pictures credit: AP and GEO TV)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber clad with 20 pounds of explosives assassinated the prominent leader of a Pakistani security force and three other people on Wednesday afternoon at a busy intersection here in northwest Pakistan, security officials said.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack against the principal victim, Safwat Ghayur, the commander of Pakistan’s Frontier Constabulary, a force controlled by the Interior Ministry that has carried out campaigns against militants in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal areas.

A car carrying Mr. Ghayur, 50, had just left the force’s headquarters and was stopped at a traffic signal when a young suicide bomber ran up to the car and detonated his explosives, Mr. Ghayur’s driver told journalists at the city’s main hospital.

The driver, Shakirullah Khan, who suffered minor injuries, said he ran to the passenger side to try to rescue Mr. Ghayur, but “the car was engulfed in flames and I couldn’t save him.”

Shafqat Malik, leader of the bomb disposal squad, said the bomber had been carrying 20 pounds of explosives loaded with ball bearings.
Eleven people were wounded in the attack, which came as residents in much of northwestern Pakistan are struggling to recover from severe floods that killed at least 800 people, devastated livestock and displaced as many as 1.4 million.

Azam Tariq, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, which is formally known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, told the Dawn newspaper that militants would continue to strike at law enforcement agencies and leaders of the ruling Pashtun Awami National Party.
“They are on our hit list,” Mr. Tariq said in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location. “We shall show no leniency.”

For complete article, click here
Related:
FC Chief, 4 personnel killed in Peshawar suicide attack - The News
Chief of Frontier Constabulary killed in suicide attack - Dawn
Safwat Ghayur’s assassination  - The News
A hero who died with his boots on By Ismail Khan - Dawn