A murder most foul

Pakistan has lost a highly professional police officer to the enemy agents who are set about subverting the country's national integrity and social harmony. SP Tahir Dawar was not an ordinary officer; he was granted the highest honour for a professional, the Quaid-e-Azam Police Medal. He rose from the ranks and excelled here in the country and abroad where he worked with the United Nations. The abduction of SP Dawar at Islamabad and his murder in Afghanistan have all the elements of a conspiracy, which rightly earned the DG ISPR's suspicion that it could be the work of an Afghan state institution. Though he didn't name the 'institution', he left no doubt about the complicity of Afghan intelligence agency NDA in this murder most foul. Dawar was kidnapped on October 26 at Islamabad and his mutilated body was found early this week in Afghanistan; the first report about that being a video on viral. Strangely, but certainly in line with a well-planned move, there seems to be an effort that there should be no mistake that the body was of SP Tahir Dawar by posting a hand written note and his identity card on the body. As to why all this identity exercise, it became clear in the light of antics the Afghan side put up at the Torkham border post where Pakistani officials had come to collect the body. They insisted that the body of the slain officer would be handed over to the leaders of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) and none else. After almost two hours, it was handed over to PTM leader Mohsin Dawar and his brothers. How come the Afghan side preferred the PTM over Pakistani officials? The idea was to tell the world that whatever befalls the Pushtun it invokes the Kabul's concern. How Afghanistan can have the gall to accuse Pakistan of being anti-Pashtun when the personnel of Afghan intelligence agency are said to have abducted and killed a Pakistani Pashtun police officer! Given Afghan government's persistent failure to stem the rising tide of Taliban insurgency the revival of Pashtunistan stunt must be its best bet.
How come SP Dawar was kidnapped from Pakistan's safest city and taken to Afghanistan? The question is relevant, but this was possible. Given the massive scale of crisscross, which takes place between the two countries, through legal and illegal points, on a daily basis, his relocation was quite possible - especially when the Afghan side wants that way as it rejects the reality of Durand Line. True, the concerned authorities in Islamabad took his disappearance rather lightly; in fact even casually as shown by the PM's media assistant's take that SP Tahir Dawar was 'safe and sound and present in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa'. If he was safe and sound in KP then how come he was found dead in Afghanistan? Being that close to the prime minister, his media manager should have been quite circumspect while talking about that incident. Moreover, instead of inquiring into various aspects of this episode just to cash in on the failure of the Safe City Project cameras in detecting the kidnappers of the police officer for political gains is bad politics. It is the time to stop making political statements on an issue that impinges upon the national security dimensions.