SP Tahir Dawar's body to be handed over to KP police on Thursday

ISLAMABAD - Hours after police confirmed the killing of missing police officer SP Tahir Khan Dawar, the ministry of foreign affairs said Afghan officials have informed the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul that a body was found by locals in Dur Baba district of Nangarhar Province on Tuesday.

In a press release here today, the Foreign Office said the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul that locals found a body in Dur Baba district of Nangarhar province on Tuesday.

"The Afghan side has confirmed that the service card of Superintendent of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Tahir Khan Dawar has also been recovered with the body," the Foreign Office in the press statement.

"After its hand over to the local police, the body was brought to Mohmand Dara district and is being transferred to Jalalabad by the Afghan authorities," it said.

The Foreign Office is yet to confirm whether the body is, in fact, that of the missing police officer.

The Consul General of Pakistan in Jalalabad was yet to receive the body, which would be subsequently transferred to Pakistan via Torkham border after completion of necessary formalities, it said.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in close contact with the Afghan Embassy, while the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul is also in touch with the Afghan Foreign Ministry, since last night," it said, adding that it would share further details as it receives them.

'Body to be handed over on Thursday'

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) information minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai said in a statement on Wednesday that the body of SP Tahir is expected to be handed over to Pakistan authorities on Thursday.

Yousafzai said a KP Police delegation had waited at the Torkham border crossing all day for SP Tahir’s body but were unsuccessful. He did not mention the reason of the delay.

Miram Sadaqat, the spokesperson of the Afghan Red Crescent, told a local media outlet that the organisation’s volunteers will transfer the body to the Torkham crossing as soon as Afghan authorities hand it over.

He said that Afghan police and hospital administration were “collecting information” about the body.

Afghan envoy questions disappearance

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.

He urged the leadership of both countries to “sit together” and talk about SP Tahir’s suspected murder.

Zakhilwal also expressed grief over the police officer’s death and said he did not have any information about the abduction.

On October 26, SP Dawar had arrived in the federal capital on a short leave. His cell phone had been switched off at around 8 pm and there was no clue of his whereabouts until his postmortem pictures went viral on social media two weeks later.

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, his disappearance was reported to the KP police that contacted Islamabad police and an FIR was also lodged.

The KP Police have refused to comment on the issue until the body is handed over to them. A police official has confirmed that the pictures being circulated on social media are of Dawar.

Tahir Dawar, who belongs to North Waziristan, was posted as the Rural SP in Peshawar a couple of months back. Before that, he had served as Faqirabad DSP. He also served in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and was posted at the Peshawar international airport for some time.

Known as a vocal police officer, Tahir Dawar had faced two suicide attacks in Bannu in the past when militancy was at its peak. He had sustained injuries in both the incidents.

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/missing-peshawar-sp-murdered-in-afghanistan-report/