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Wednesday, March 16, 2016


Army Officer gunned down in Peshawar

Source The News International

PESHAWAR: In yet another apparent target killing incident, unidentified assailants gunned down a senior officer of the Pakistan Army at a mosque near Hayatabad at the time of Friday prayers.
The family members of the deceased told The News that armed men waiting in ambush opened fire on Lieutenant Colonel Tariq Ghafoor at a small mosque near the Ring Road leading to Hayatabad.
“Those accompanying him told the police that they went to the mosque in a car. They said they entered the mosque while Lt Col Tariq was parking the vehicle when they heard three shots,” Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Mubarak Zeb told The News.
As the relatives and other people came out of the mosque after hearing the gunshots, they found the colonel critically wounded. He succumbed to his injuries on way to the Hayatabad Medical Complex. His body was sent for an autopsy to the Combined Military Hospital and later to the Khyber Medical College.
Lt Col Tariq Ghafoor belonged to Kohat but was living in the family’s bungalow in Hayatabad. The family owned a gas station on the Ring Road near the place where he was shot dead.
The deceased was the elder son of the late Major General Fazal Ghafoor, who had served as the inspector general of the Frontier Corps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata. The general had led the Frontier Corps to put down the armed uprising by the black-turbaned followers of the Tanzim Nifiaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) head Maulana Sufi Muhammad in Swat and the rest of Malakand Division in 1995. He was the son-in-law of Mian Mehboob and brother-in-law of Mian Saeed Ahmed.
Lt Col Tariq Ghafoor’s younger brother Asad and a sister are also serving as officers in the army. “He was a thorough gentleman and a friend indeed. He will be missed forever,” said one of his close friends, Muhammad Saeed. Lt Col Tariq is survived by his widow, a son and three daughters. His funeral prayer will be offered in Chambai village near the Kohat prison at 2pm today (Sunday).
Our Kohat correspondent adds: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the killing of Lt Col Tariq Ghafoor. Its spokesman Muhammad Khurasani called reporters to make the claim and to assert that he was on their hit-list due to his role in taking action against the Taliban in Quetta. He added that the TTP’s special task force was tasked to carry out the attack.

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