By Tariq Habib
Pakistan has been facing terrorism for last one decade, while the financial hub of the country, Karachi, has been in grip of terrorism for last three decades. Thousands of people, including law enforcers, professionals and scholars, have been killed. Terrorism techniques have changed “bullet to blast” which has raised causalities in these gory incidents.
The city remained affected and saw different waves of terrorism. Karachi witnessed killings of innocent people, some of whom had been tortured using drill machine, in a brutal way. For the last decade, rescue workers collecting human remains have also been falling victim to suicide attacks.
During the efforts of curbing crime, a large numbers of law enforcers have been killed in the city, but could not remove the criminals and anti-state elements from the city. Karachi police, especially CID department of the police, played a vital role in this war and lost more than a thousand of their officers and constables. Karachi police were always rewarded for their success as they arrested terrorists and target killers involved in heinous crimes.
By Tariq Habib
“I don’t fear death because I believe everyone will die one day. I will bury terrorists in this land,” were the last words of SP CID Chaudhry Aslam Khan who survived more than eight attacks in his battle against terrorists, criminals and extortionists.
However, Chaudhry Aslam couldn’t survive in a terrorist attack near Essa Nagri at the Lyari Expressway in Karachi. Aslam lost his life along with his two guards, while seven other cops and three passengers also received injuries. So powerful was the blast that it threw the bullet-proof vehicle of Chaudhry Aslam 20-30- feet away on another track of the road. Two police mobiles and a taxi were also badly damaged. The police arrested the injured taxi driver.
The postmortem report of Chaudhry Aslam stated that all bones of his face and head had broken down and his mutilated body was recognized from his beard. Ribs were also broken and the lower parts of body and legs were also badly hit by the blast.
After the blast, the departments concerned created a controversy, as they held different opinions about the nature of the blast. CID officers claimed that it was a suicide blast and more than 100 kg explosive material was used. On the other hand, the Bomb Disposal Squad BDS was of view that it was a planted bomb with 20 kg explosive material.
Then, three teams headed by DIG Zafar Bukhari, constituted to investigate the bombing, surveyed the site of the attack and collected evidences. Initial investigations show a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden pickup into the slain police officer’s bulletproof SUV when his motorcade was passing through the Lyari Expressway.
