insaf_tiger
Banned
Mara hai mqm nay or qabool ttp nay kar liya kia coordination hai
TTP claims responsibility of assassinating Shaheed Aslam Chaudhary
- Thread starter Qalandari1
- Start date
Pakistani Resident
Senator (1k+ posts)
I have Earlier Heard That Benazir Bhutto Was Strong Opponent Of Chaudhry Aslam...
Benazir Also Openly Condemn Chaudhry Aslam....????
Is This True...???
and if it is then Why Did She Hated Chaudhry Aslam....???
Benazir Also Openly Condemn Chaudhry Aslam....????
Is This True...???
and if it is then Why Did She Hated Chaudhry Aslam....???
w-a-n-t-e-d-
Minister (2k+ posts)
Zafar Malik
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
ttp mqm ka hi aik dehshat group hai , waise ab karachi mein bhi Drone attack hone chahiye takeh wahn ttp ke logon ko dhoondh dhoondh kar mara jaay .
Zafar Malik
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Syed Munawar Hasan @SMunawarHasan
We strongly condemn the attack on Ch Aslam. May Allah bless the soul of Ch Aslam and give patience to his family ameen.
Qalandari1
Banned
Oye Teri soch ghatia hi rahay gi tassubi cheez. Woh Mansehra ka rehnay wala hai aur Punjabi nahin hai.
atensari
(50k+ posts) بابائے فورم
M Ali Khan
Minister (2k+ posts)
Qalandari1
Banned
Tumhari soch hai hi ghatia. Aur mein chahta hoon kay ghatia hi rahay.
atensari
(50k+ posts) بابائے فورم
"Punjabi nahin hai"چوہدری صاحب بڑے خوش قسمت تھے
Qalandari do you realy know the back ground and early life of Chaudhry Aslam ?? Can you share about that great brave and honest man ???
M Ali Khan
Minister (2k+ posts)
from 1 November 2005
http://paktribune.com/news/print.php?id=124234
Legitimizing the extra-judicial killings
PAK TRIBUNE REPORT
It may be surprising for others but not for Pakistanis that an elected prime minister could be ousted, jailed and even hanged on the charges of extra-judicial killings, but the real people behind it always remain untouchables no matter if political parties or army rule the country. Who are these untouchables? Of course, the police, the state`s one of the most lethal and cruel tools.
On November 6, 1996, the then Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government, led by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was dismissed by the former President, Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari on the charges of corruption, misuse of authority, and most importantly, the extra-judicial killings in Karachi during 1994 to 1996. Hundreds of people, mostly political activists belonging to the Muttehida Quami Movement (MQM), a major coalition partner in incumbent federal and provincial governments. The MQM claims that thousands of its activists were killed in fake police encounters since June 19, 1992 to October 12, 1999 in the successive governments of Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto and again Nawaz Sharif.
The MQM blames the late Chief of Army Staff, General Asif Nawaz for the army action and extra-judicial murders of its workers in Karachi, Hyderabad, and other urban areas of Sindh. The alleged army action was commenced on June 19, 1992 when the MQM had been in power both in the center and the province. A majority of MQM leaders, including ministers, MNAs and MPAs had gone underground to avoid raids and arrests. The MQM Chief Altaf Hussein had left for London much before the operation started where he had applied for political assylum, and has recently got the UK citizenship. Hundreds (MQM claims thousands) of workers were arrested by the law enforcing agencies, while Brigadier Haroon of Pakistan Army claimed to have recovered huge cache of weapons, tools used for torture and maps of Jinnahpur(a seprate homeland for Mohajirs) from the alleged torture cells run by the MQM in different parts of Karachi and Hyderabad.
The MQM alleges that thousands of its workers had been brutally tortured and killed by the law enforcing agencies ( army, rangers and police) during Karachi operation, and generally, the police were used for that. The government of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was dismissed by former President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1993, but operation against MQM continued. In the wake of general elections in 1993, former Premier Benazir Bhutto came into power for the second time.
Surprisingly, the MQM which had been lambasting Nawaz Sharif for operation against its workers, made adjustments with the PML(N) in provincial assembly elections in Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas in 1993. The MQM`s checkered politics took another dramatic turn when it had decided to support Farooq Ahmed Leghari, the PPP`s candidate for the post of president thus helping him have an easy entry to the president house in 1993 president election. However, the relations between the PPP and the MQM had gone bitter in the end of 1993 when the latter blamed the former for violating the agreement struck between the two parties on the eve of president election.
Whereas, the PPP had started to blame the MQM for unleashing and patronizing terrorism in the city The spree of extra-judicial murders reached at its zenith in 1994 when the then Interior Minister, and a former army general, Major General Naseerullah Khan Babar took the reigns of alleged operation in his hand. From 1994 to 1996 (till the ouster of Ms Bhutto`s second government), the MQM had intended to nominate Mr Babar in almost all the FIRs in connection with extra-judicial killings of its activists, which understandably could not be done as the police had refused to register FIR against the former interior minister. Mr Babar had imported a police officer Shoaib Saddal from Islamabad as DIG Karachi in 1995 who later was indicted in the extra-judicial murder of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, the younger brother of Benazir Bhutto and chief of its own faction, the PPP(Shaheed Bhutto). Murtaza Bhutto was killed in a police encounter on September 20, 1996 just a few steps away from his 70 Clifton residence.
During Karachi operation, several police officers had not merely earned popularity for their involvement in extra-judicial killings but also got promotions for killing the political activists in fake encounters. SHO New Karachi Police Station, Inspector Bahadur Ali had emerged as an anti-MQM police officer in 1992 as the MQM had blamed him for various fake encounters, torture and registration of fake cases against its activists. Bhadur Ali was later assassinated by "unknown terrorists" in 1993. His son Irfan Bahdur was appointed as a DSP directly by the then government as compensation.
In 1995, a team of anti-MQM officers was set up by the then DIG Shoaib Saddal which included Inspector Zeeshan Kazmi, Inspector Aslam Hayat, Inspector Chaudry Aslam Khan, Inspector Sarwar Commando, Inspector Taufiq Zahid, Inspector Rao Anwar Khan, Inspector Bahauddin and Inspector Nasir Zaidi. This team was later patronized by a former IG Sindh, Maqbool Rana during the second stint of Nawaz Sharif from 1997 to 1999. These officers emerged as a sign of terror for the MQM as the latter blamed the former for unleashing a reign of extra-judicial killings of its activists. Inspector Aslam Chaudry who now has been promoted to the post of SP, had raided the MQM`s headquarters commonly known as Nine-Zero in 1999 and allegedly harrassed the party leaders present there including a former senator Aftab Shaikh. Inspector Rao Anwar had allegedly killed some accused (MQM activists) who were on remand. Rao Anwar claimed that he was taking the accused to the police station, some unidentified terrorists attacked the police vehicle. As a result, all the accused were killed but surprisingly, all the policemen remained unhurt. Inspector Zeeshan Kazmi had earned the reputation of a police officerwho was not answerable to even the IG and DIG. These officers were also charged with receiving heavy bribes from the families of the political workers for their release. The MQM leaders by time and again had vowed to bring these officers to the justice whenever it came into power.
The MQM Chief Altaf Hussein had even threatened to move to the international court of justice against the extra judicial killings. Dr Farooq Sattar, Kanwar Khalid Younas, Aftab Shaikh, Nasreen Jalil and others used to hold successive press conferences at Karachi Press Club during that entire period to inform the newsmen about the extra-judicial activities of these police officers. They had repeated their plans to bring these officers to the justice in the press conferences. Of course, some of them have been brought to the "justice". Inspector Zeeshan Kazmi , Inspector Aslam Hayat, Inspector Taufiq Zahid and various other police personnel known to be anti-MQM have been assassinated during last three years.
The remaining unwanted police officers have now become the blue-eyed boys of the MQM. When the incumbent Sindh government was installed in the wake of October 2002 elections, the then advisor to Chief Minister on Home Affairs, Aftab Shaikh had transferred some of these unwanted police officers including Aslam Chaudry, Irfan Bahadur, and Taufiq Zahifd to the interior of Sindh, however, no case was registered against them. A single-column news appeared in the newspapers at the advent of this year stunned the MQM workers but not the political analysts. The news was about the appointment of Chaudry Aslam as in charge of the newly established Industrial Crime Unit with DSP Irfan Bahdur , and Inspector Sarwar Commando his assistants. The latest news is that another undesirable officer Rao Anwar who had been on long leave and enjoying the festivties of federal capital, has also joined the ICU. Other Karachi operation master officers, Inspector Nasir Jafri, Inspector Bahauddin are also enjoying the impunity granted by the coalition government.
The Sindh Interior Minister Rauf Siddiqui who belongs to MQM has "no words" to praise the performance of Aslam Chaudry and company. And it is understandable, as Aslam Chaudry had managed to arrest the former underworld don. Shoaib Khan a few months ago, who had allured hundreds of MQM workers. Shoaib Khan, once an untouchable, died in Central Jail Karachi in mysterious circumstances. This situation is embarrassing and antagonizing for the MQM activists who have to defend their party, which is patronizing the "killers" of their friends and partymen. They are unable to comprehend that why their party has legitimized the extra-judicial killings of its activists? Rauf Siddiqui and other MQM leaders have no idea that how pinching it is for their party workers when they (MQM leaders) praise and patronize the police officials who earlier had been declared "butchers" and "killers" of their friends and colleagues. But they should understand that this is politics wherein , the blood of ordinary political workers is not thicker than water. Their blood is meant for being exploited by their leaders
http://paktribune.com/news/print.php?id=124234
Legitimizing the extra-judicial killings
PAK TRIBUNE REPORT
It may be surprising for others but not for Pakistanis that an elected prime minister could be ousted, jailed and even hanged on the charges of extra-judicial killings, but the real people behind it always remain untouchables no matter if political parties or army rule the country. Who are these untouchables? Of course, the police, the state`s one of the most lethal and cruel tools.
On November 6, 1996, the then Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government, led by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was dismissed by the former President, Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari on the charges of corruption, misuse of authority, and most importantly, the extra-judicial killings in Karachi during 1994 to 1996. Hundreds of people, mostly political activists belonging to the Muttehida Quami Movement (MQM), a major coalition partner in incumbent federal and provincial governments. The MQM claims that thousands of its activists were killed in fake police encounters since June 19, 1992 to October 12, 1999 in the successive governments of Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto and again Nawaz Sharif.
The MQM blames the late Chief of Army Staff, General Asif Nawaz for the army action and extra-judicial murders of its workers in Karachi, Hyderabad, and other urban areas of Sindh. The alleged army action was commenced on June 19, 1992 when the MQM had been in power both in the center and the province. A majority of MQM leaders, including ministers, MNAs and MPAs had gone underground to avoid raids and arrests. The MQM Chief Altaf Hussein had left for London much before the operation started where he had applied for political assylum, and has recently got the UK citizenship. Hundreds (MQM claims thousands) of workers were arrested by the law enforcing agencies, while Brigadier Haroon of Pakistan Army claimed to have recovered huge cache of weapons, tools used for torture and maps of Jinnahpur(a seprate homeland for Mohajirs) from the alleged torture cells run by the MQM in different parts of Karachi and Hyderabad.
The MQM alleges that thousands of its workers had been brutally tortured and killed by the law enforcing agencies ( army, rangers and police) during Karachi operation, and generally, the police were used for that. The government of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was dismissed by former President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1993, but operation against MQM continued. In the wake of general elections in 1993, former Premier Benazir Bhutto came into power for the second time.
Surprisingly, the MQM which had been lambasting Nawaz Sharif for operation against its workers, made adjustments with the PML(N) in provincial assembly elections in Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas in 1993. The MQM`s checkered politics took another dramatic turn when it had decided to support Farooq Ahmed Leghari, the PPP`s candidate for the post of president thus helping him have an easy entry to the president house in 1993 president election. However, the relations between the PPP and the MQM had gone bitter in the end of 1993 when the latter blamed the former for violating the agreement struck between the two parties on the eve of president election.
Whereas, the PPP had started to blame the MQM for unleashing and patronizing terrorism in the city The spree of extra-judicial murders reached at its zenith in 1994 when the then Interior Minister, and a former army general, Major General Naseerullah Khan Babar took the reigns of alleged operation in his hand. From 1994 to 1996 (till the ouster of Ms Bhutto`s second government), the MQM had intended to nominate Mr Babar in almost all the FIRs in connection with extra-judicial killings of its activists, which understandably could not be done as the police had refused to register FIR against the former interior minister. Mr Babar had imported a police officer Shoaib Saddal from Islamabad as DIG Karachi in 1995 who later was indicted in the extra-judicial murder of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, the younger brother of Benazir Bhutto and chief of its own faction, the PPP(Shaheed Bhutto). Murtaza Bhutto was killed in a police encounter on September 20, 1996 just a few steps away from his 70 Clifton residence.
During Karachi operation, several police officers had not merely earned popularity for their involvement in extra-judicial killings but also got promotions for killing the political activists in fake encounters. SHO New Karachi Police Station, Inspector Bahadur Ali had emerged as an anti-MQM police officer in 1992 as the MQM had blamed him for various fake encounters, torture and registration of fake cases against its activists. Bhadur Ali was later assassinated by "unknown terrorists" in 1993. His son Irfan Bahdur was appointed as a DSP directly by the then government as compensation.
In 1995, a team of anti-MQM officers was set up by the then DIG Shoaib Saddal which included Inspector Zeeshan Kazmi, Inspector Aslam Hayat, Inspector Chaudry Aslam Khan, Inspector Sarwar Commando, Inspector Taufiq Zahid, Inspector Rao Anwar Khan, Inspector Bahauddin and Inspector Nasir Zaidi. This team was later patronized by a former IG Sindh, Maqbool Rana during the second stint of Nawaz Sharif from 1997 to 1999. These officers emerged as a sign of terror for the MQM as the latter blamed the former for unleashing a reign of extra-judicial killings of its activists. Inspector Aslam Chaudry who now has been promoted to the post of SP, had raided the MQM`s headquarters commonly known as Nine-Zero in 1999 and allegedly harrassed the party leaders present there including a former senator Aftab Shaikh. Inspector Rao Anwar had allegedly killed some accused (MQM activists) who were on remand. Rao Anwar claimed that he was taking the accused to the police station, some unidentified terrorists attacked the police vehicle. As a result, all the accused were killed but surprisingly, all the policemen remained unhurt. Inspector Zeeshan Kazmi had earned the reputation of a police officerwho was not answerable to even the IG and DIG. These officers were also charged with receiving heavy bribes from the families of the political workers for their release. The MQM leaders by time and again had vowed to bring these officers to the justice whenever it came into power.
The MQM Chief Altaf Hussein had even threatened to move to the international court of justice against the extra judicial killings. Dr Farooq Sattar, Kanwar Khalid Younas, Aftab Shaikh, Nasreen Jalil and others used to hold successive press conferences at Karachi Press Club during that entire period to inform the newsmen about the extra-judicial activities of these police officers. They had repeated their plans to bring these officers to the justice in the press conferences. Of course, some of them have been brought to the "justice". Inspector Zeeshan Kazmi , Inspector Aslam Hayat, Inspector Taufiq Zahid and various other police personnel known to be anti-MQM have been assassinated during last three years.
The remaining unwanted police officers have now become the blue-eyed boys of the MQM. When the incumbent Sindh government was installed in the wake of October 2002 elections, the then advisor to Chief Minister on Home Affairs, Aftab Shaikh had transferred some of these unwanted police officers including Aslam Chaudry, Irfan Bahadur, and Taufiq Zahifd to the interior of Sindh, however, no case was registered against them. A single-column news appeared in the newspapers at the advent of this year stunned the MQM workers but not the political analysts. The news was about the appointment of Chaudry Aslam as in charge of the newly established Industrial Crime Unit with DSP Irfan Bahdur , and Inspector Sarwar Commando his assistants. The latest news is that another undesirable officer Rao Anwar who had been on long leave and enjoying the festivties of federal capital, has also joined the ICU. Other Karachi operation master officers, Inspector Nasir Jafri, Inspector Bahauddin are also enjoying the impunity granted by the coalition government.
The Sindh Interior Minister Rauf Siddiqui who belongs to MQM has "no words" to praise the performance of Aslam Chaudry and company. And it is understandable, as Aslam Chaudry had managed to arrest the former underworld don. Shoaib Khan a few months ago, who had allured hundreds of MQM workers. Shoaib Khan, once an untouchable, died in Central Jail Karachi in mysterious circumstances. This situation is embarrassing and antagonizing for the MQM activists who have to defend their party, which is patronizing the "killers" of their friends and partymen. They are unable to comprehend that why their party has legitimized the extra-judicial killings of its activists? Rauf Siddiqui and other MQM leaders have no idea that how pinching it is for their party workers when they (MQM leaders) praise and patronize the police officials who earlier had been declared "butchers" and "killers" of their friends and colleagues. But they should understand that this is politics wherein , the blood of ordinary political workers is not thicker than water. Their blood is meant for being exploited by their leaders
Qalandari jaise racist aur Anti Punjabi ke naseeb mein jal jal ke koela hona likha hai...Punjab ya Punjabion ka bigarr tau kuch nahin sakte lekin apni he aag mein jalte rehte hain.
Qalandari1
Banned
Aisi baaton ka jawab tumhein mein qiyamat kay din say pehlay nahin milnay doon ga lol.
M Ali Khan
Minister (2k+ posts)
from 2011:
'Pakistan's toughest cop' vows to bury his Taliban attackers in bomb crater
Karachi version of Dirty Harry, who has been shot five times, makes pledge after suicide attack blows the front off his home
Declan Walsh in Karachi
The Guardian, Thursday 10 November 2011 19.32 GMT
Pakistan's toughest cop, Chaudhry Aslam Khan, outside his heavily protected office in Karachi. Photograph: Declan Walsh/for the Guardian
If the lucky really have nine lives, then Chaudhry Aslam Khan, Karachi's toughest policeman, is fast running out of his.
One morning in September, Aslam was sleeping when powerful shockwaves rippled through his house. Falling out of bed, he discovered that a Taliban suicide bomber had rammed a van into his front gate, with devastating consequences.
The blast sheared off the entire front of his palatial home. Windows were shattered across Defence, one of the city's most pricey neighbourhoods. And eight people lay dead: policemen, house guards and a mother and child who had been strolling to school.
Stepping through the rubble and blood, Aslam, who had survived eight previous attempts on his life, helped load the dead and injured into ambulances. (Miraculously, his own family was largely unhurt.) Then he turned to face the media with an extraordinary message of defiance.
"I will bury the attackers right here," he told the cameras, pointing to the two-metre-deep bomb crater, and vowing to launch his own "jihad" against his assailants. "I didn't know the terrorists were such cowards. Why don't they attack me in the open?" Then, sleepless and smeared in dust, he turned on his heel and went back to work.
Crime-fighting in Karachi, a sprawling seaside metropolis racked by a witch's brew of violence – ethnic, political, religious, criminal – has never been easy. So far this year, more than 400 people have died in shootings linked to a political power struggle. A surge in Taliban violence pumped the death toll further.
Few know the dark streets as well as Aslam, a grizzled police veteran of 27 years' experience. Profane, chain-smoking and usually armed with a Glock pistol, he has earned a controversial reputation as Karachi's version of Dirty Harry – the cop who will do whatever it takes to keep the peace.
He has fought on the frontline of the tangled conflicts that have bedevilled Pakistan's commercial capital since the 1980s. He cut his teeth during the vicious street warfare of the 1990s, when police and soldiers fought street battles with militants from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a powerful party.
Later, Aslam turned his guns on the city's mobsters: racketeers, extortionists and kidnappers, several of whom perished in murky circumstances after being apprehended by Aslam's men.
Last year, they killed Rehman Dakait, a legendary Baloch gangster, in self defence in what was described as a shootout on the city limits. The dead man's relatives have another version: that he was arrested, tortured and shot in cold blood – circumstances Pakistanis euphemistically refer to as an "encounter". It was not the first such accusation against Aslam: he spent 18 months in jail in 2006 after being accused of killing an innocent man; a superior court later cleared him.
Working from an unmarked compound with military-style defences, Aslam roams Karachi at night in an armoured jeep. Protection comes from a team of heavily armed officers, many of whom resemble the gangsters they are pursuing: like their boss, they do not wear uniforms.
He typically works through the night because, he says, "that's when the criminals are out and about". He is proud of his gunslinging reputation. He has earned 45m rupees (325,000) in government rewards over the years, he says, producing copies of the cheques to prove it.
That has made him prey as well as hunter: he has been shot five times during eight assassination attempts, he says. But, he added, God is behind him. "I've seen so much that nothing scares me," he said. "As a Muslim, my faith tells everyone has to die one day. I'm not afraid of it."
Although flamboyant, Aslam is by no means unique among Pakistani police. A 2008 report by the International Crisis Group said they had "a well-deserved reputation for corruption, high-handedness and abuse of human rights". Officers retort that they are under-resourced (Karachi has 26,000 officers for perhaps 18 million people) and labour under a sickly criminal justice system with a conviction rate of 5-10%.
And, in a city where crime, politics and ethnicity are inter-connected, police suffer from massive interference: even junior appointments are controlled by politicians who pressure officers to go easy on their favourite gangsters. "It's a totally politicised force," admitted Sharifuddin Memon, an adviser to the provincial home minister.
Surging Taliban violence, however, has upped the ante dramatically, spilling from the tribal belt along the Afghan border into Pakistan's largest city. Last November, a giant suicide bomb ripped through a police headquarters; in May, militants launched an audacious commando assault on a sensitive navy base.
After September's attack on Aslam, a Taliban spokesman named five senior officers on its hit list. Since then, senior officers have taken new measures to outrun the suicide bombers: bulletproof cars, moving office without warning, sending out decoy convoys.
Still, few doubt the Taliban will strike again. "We are worried," said Raja Umer Khattab, a senior officer who recently erected a six-metre-high wall around his home.
The militant violence has also bred tensions with the wider community. Aslam's neighbours in Defence have launched a court petition to force him to move to another area.
"Our police are not like the English ones: when you see them, it means trouble," said Sami Mustafa, principal of an expensive private school across the street, pointing to classroom windows that had been shattered. "It would be no big loss if he moves."
The petition has elicited a furious reaction. "People should think about the work we do," said Khattab. "If our children are being targeted, it is because we are protecting those people."
Aslam, meanwhile, is back on the beat, unbowed by the threats from militants or neighbours. "I will fight till the last drop of my blood," he said, puling on a fresh cigarette. "When these people are killing children, I think it is right for us to kill them. They shouldn't even be called Muslims.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/10/pakistan-toughest-cop-bury-taliban
'Pakistan's toughest cop' vows to bury his Taliban attackers in bomb crater
Karachi version of Dirty Harry, who has been shot five times, makes pledge after suicide attack blows the front off his home
Declan Walsh in Karachi
The Guardian, Thursday 10 November 2011 19.32 GMT
Pakistan's toughest cop, Chaudhry Aslam Khan, outside his heavily protected office in Karachi. Photograph: Declan Walsh/for the Guardian
If the lucky really have nine lives, then Chaudhry Aslam Khan, Karachi's toughest policeman, is fast running out of his.
One morning in September, Aslam was sleeping when powerful shockwaves rippled through his house. Falling out of bed, he discovered that a Taliban suicide bomber had rammed a van into his front gate, with devastating consequences.
The blast sheared off the entire front of his palatial home. Windows were shattered across Defence, one of the city's most pricey neighbourhoods. And eight people lay dead: policemen, house guards and a mother and child who had been strolling to school.
Stepping through the rubble and blood, Aslam, who had survived eight previous attempts on his life, helped load the dead and injured into ambulances. (Miraculously, his own family was largely unhurt.) Then he turned to face the media with an extraordinary message of defiance.
"I will bury the attackers right here," he told the cameras, pointing to the two-metre-deep bomb crater, and vowing to launch his own "jihad" against his assailants. "I didn't know the terrorists were such cowards. Why don't they attack me in the open?" Then, sleepless and smeared in dust, he turned on his heel and went back to work.
Crime-fighting in Karachi, a sprawling seaside metropolis racked by a witch's brew of violence – ethnic, political, religious, criminal – has never been easy. So far this year, more than 400 people have died in shootings linked to a political power struggle. A surge in Taliban violence pumped the death toll further.
Few know the dark streets as well as Aslam, a grizzled police veteran of 27 years' experience. Profane, chain-smoking and usually armed with a Glock pistol, he has earned a controversial reputation as Karachi's version of Dirty Harry – the cop who will do whatever it takes to keep the peace.
He has fought on the frontline of the tangled conflicts that have bedevilled Pakistan's commercial capital since the 1980s. He cut his teeth during the vicious street warfare of the 1990s, when police and soldiers fought street battles with militants from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a powerful party.
Later, Aslam turned his guns on the city's mobsters: racketeers, extortionists and kidnappers, several of whom perished in murky circumstances after being apprehended by Aslam's men.
Last year, they killed Rehman Dakait, a legendary Baloch gangster, in self defence in what was described as a shootout on the city limits. The dead man's relatives have another version: that he was arrested, tortured and shot in cold blood – circumstances Pakistanis euphemistically refer to as an "encounter". It was not the first such accusation against Aslam: he spent 18 months in jail in 2006 after being accused of killing an innocent man; a superior court later cleared him.
Working from an unmarked compound with military-style defences, Aslam roams Karachi at night in an armoured jeep. Protection comes from a team of heavily armed officers, many of whom resemble the gangsters they are pursuing: like their boss, they do not wear uniforms.
He typically works through the night because, he says, "that's when the criminals are out and about". He is proud of his gunslinging reputation. He has earned 45m rupees (325,000) in government rewards over the years, he says, producing copies of the cheques to prove it.
That has made him prey as well as hunter: he has been shot five times during eight assassination attempts, he says. But, he added, God is behind him. "I've seen so much that nothing scares me," he said. "As a Muslim, my faith tells everyone has to die one day. I'm not afraid of it."
Although flamboyant, Aslam is by no means unique among Pakistani police. A 2008 report by the International Crisis Group said they had "a well-deserved reputation for corruption, high-handedness and abuse of human rights". Officers retort that they are under-resourced (Karachi has 26,000 officers for perhaps 18 million people) and labour under a sickly criminal justice system with a conviction rate of 5-10%.
And, in a city where crime, politics and ethnicity are inter-connected, police suffer from massive interference: even junior appointments are controlled by politicians who pressure officers to go easy on their favourite gangsters. "It's a totally politicised force," admitted Sharifuddin Memon, an adviser to the provincial home minister.
Surging Taliban violence, however, has upped the ante dramatically, spilling from the tribal belt along the Afghan border into Pakistan's largest city. Last November, a giant suicide bomb ripped through a police headquarters; in May, militants launched an audacious commando assault on a sensitive navy base.
After September's attack on Aslam, a Taliban spokesman named five senior officers on its hit list. Since then, senior officers have taken new measures to outrun the suicide bombers: bulletproof cars, moving office without warning, sending out decoy convoys.
Still, few doubt the Taliban will strike again. "We are worried," said Raja Umer Khattab, a senior officer who recently erected a six-metre-high wall around his home.
The militant violence has also bred tensions with the wider community. Aslam's neighbours in Defence have launched a court petition to force him to move to another area.
"Our police are not like the English ones: when you see them, it means trouble," said Sami Mustafa, principal of an expensive private school across the street, pointing to classroom windows that had been shattered. "It would be no big loss if he moves."
The petition has elicited a furious reaction. "People should think about the work we do," said Khattab. "If our children are being targeted, it is because we are protecting those people."
Aslam, meanwhile, is back on the beat, unbowed by the threats from militants or neighbours. "I will fight till the last drop of my blood," he said, puling on a fresh cigarette. "When these people are killing children, I think it is right for us to kill them. They shouldn't even be called Muslims.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/10/pakistan-toughest-cop-bury-taliban
