–FO spokesman says Afghan diplomat was summoned twice
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday lodged a protest with Afghanistan over the delay in handing over the body of Superintendent Police (SP) Tahir Khan Dawar, who went missing from Islamabad last month and was found dead in Nangarhar two days ago.
SP Tahir, a police officer who had survived two suicide attacks in Bannu, was kidnapped from Islamabad’s G-10/4 area on October 26. The next day a text message sent to family members from his mobile phone claimed he was well and would be back home soon. After the text message was received, Dawar’s family reported his disappearance to the KP police that contacted Islamabad police and an FIR [first information report] was lodged.
“We summoned the Afghan diplomat to the Foreign Office twice,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said during his weekly press briefing in Islamabad.
“We lodged a protest with Afghanistan over the delay in handing over SP Dawar’s body,” he added. “We have demanded that his body be handed over to Pakistan immediately.”
The FO spokesperson further said, “Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan has also lodged a protest over the delay in the handing over of SP Dawar’s body.”
“The Pakistani counsel general is at the hospital to ensure the body is handed over,” Dr Faisal added.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Imran Khan called for an investigation into the murder of the Peshawar rural superintendent of police.
The prime minister shared on Twitter that he has followed news of SP’s murder closely and has ordered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government to coordinate with Islamabad police and hold an inquiry.
Separately, speaking in the Senate, Afridi reiterated that the PM had ordered an inquiry report into the murder.
He added that the Interior Ministry has just begun receiving details of the case, and it was revealed that the SP Tahir was taken from Islamabad to Punjab via Mianwali and then to Bannu.
“We got to know of his disappearance on October 26 through intelligence and other sources.”
“There is no patrol on the Afghan side of the border, an issue that has been brought up multiple times,” he asserted. The interior minister added that this is not the first incident of this sort to occur, as Pakistan and Afghanistan share a penetrable border.
“Many of our men have been picked up this way, and later their bodies were then recovered from the other side of the border.”
He added that the government will “make an example out of those responsible for SP Dawar’s murder”, and make sure that the case is resolved, “be it in Pakistan or Afghanistan.”
However, earlier on Wednesday, outgoing Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal told journalists at a farewell ceremony that the Pakistani government had not reached out to Afghan authorities for any information about the missing police official.
“How did a police officer disappear from Islamabad and turn up dead in Afghanistan?” he asked, urging the leadership of both countries to “sit together” and talk about SP Tahir’s murder.
