Heroes Never Die: Chaudhry Aslam and Aitizaz Hassan

SSP-CID Chaudhry Aslam was martyred in a suicide bomb blast near Essa Nagri at the Lyari Expressway in Karachi. Super cop Chaudry Aslam known by different name like ‘Sultan Rahi of Karachi’, ‘encounter specialist’ and ‘baba police’ was one of Pakistan’s best known Police commanders. Chaudry Aslam was the head of the Anti-Extremist Cell of the CID and was known for encounters with the leaders of different banned militant organizations like Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Mohammad, Sipah-e-Sahaba.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the blast. After initial investigation it was reported that a pickup truck with around 200kg explosive material kept in blue cans on the top of the pickup truck was used in this attack.

Chaudhry Aslam’s Profile

Chaudhry Aslam originally belonged to Mansehra and his real name was Muhammad Aslam. He joined police force in 1984 as ASI and soon got into the higher ranks of police because of his braveness and vicious raids on criminals.

He took part in both the operations against the MQM in 1990’s.

He was the only living police officer who took part in those operations, rest of the officers were killed. Chaudhry was promoted to the ranks of DSP in 1999 and just after 6 years he became an SP. Although he was not having the proper qualification for the rank of an SP, his promotion was made on the basis of his braveness and experience in encounters of hardened criminals and terrorists.

Achievements

Captures of several most wanted criminals like Saulat Mirza, Rehman Dakait, Shoaib Khan and Ajmal Pahari was on his credit. Other than these many TTP commanders and militants became victim of Chaudhry Aslam. Even a few hours before his death, he had participated in a raid against TTP militants and killed 3 of them. His achievements include a Pakistan Police Medal, Quaid-e-Azam Police Medal and the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz awarded by the president on March 23 this year.

As a super cop his life was not easy. He was attacked several times and his life was always in danger because of security threats but he never left his composure. He always had a strong believe in destiny and used to say that “when I have to die, nothing will save me and when I have to live on no one can kill me”.

Not only in Pakistan but Chaudhry Aslam was a famous face in international media also. In one such report in Nov 2013, a top British publication “The Guardian” paid tribute to him and branded him as a “Pakistan’s Toughest Cop”.

Attacks on Chaudhry Aslam

Chaudhry Aslam had been attacked several times by different terrorist outfits and he survived in all these attacks.

[su_label type=”info”]Jan 2006 [/su_label]  In Jan-2006 Chaudhry Aslam was attacked for the first time when a gunmen attacked his convoy in Girzi. Chaudhry Aslam survived this attack but two other police officers who were with him died.

[su_label type=”info”]Nov 2010 [/su_label]  Over a dozen militants stormed CID center near PIDC in Karachi. Police exchanged fire with the militants trying to get into the building. At the same time a truck laden with explosives hit boundary wall destroyed the building, left 20 dead. Later terrorist claimed that Chaudhry Aslam was one the target of this attack.

[su_label type=”info”]Sep 2011 [/su_label]  Chaudhry Aslam house in DHA Phase VII near Darakshan Police Station was hit with a vehicle carry 300 kgs of explosive material. Once again Chaudhry Aslam survived but atleast eight people were killed in this blast including a kid and school teacher.

[su_label type=”info”]May 2013 [/su_label]  Chaudhry Aslam and other police officers were attacked with rockets and grenade when they were busy in an operation against criminal elements in Lyari.

[su_label type=”info”]July 2013 [/su_label]  Chaudhry Aslam’s convoy was attack in the same area of Essa Nagri at Sir Shah Suleman. But the terrorist managed to injure KMC commissioner in this bomb attack.

Teenager Super Star Aitizaz Hassan

In another incident earlier this week, Aitizaz Hassan, a teenage boy laid his life to save hundreds of his fellow students and teachers when he intercepted a suicide bomber some 150 meters away from the main gate of the school in the northwestern district of Hangu. He wanted to capture that suicide bomber when he noticed a detonator in his hands, he grabbed him but at the same time the suicide bomber blew himself.

His family said that they are proud of Aitizaz Hassan and insisted that rather than focus on the sorrow brought about by his death, they want to focus on their pride in his actions.

Both Chaudry Aslam and Aitizaz Hasan are our heroes; heroes who saved hundreds of lives in their own styles. They are recommended for the highest civil awards and Prime Minister has approved the highest civil awards for them but a question arise here that until when  will we have to sacrifice our loved ones for the peace of this country.

After 9/11 terror attacks, the first thing that United States did was the legislation to strengthen their security controls. They immediately came up with USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act of 2001, which helped their security forces in their war against terrorism.

India already had different terrorism acts like TADA but recently it was also revealed by R V S Mani, a former Indian home ministry officer in his declaration in the Supreme Court of India that he was told by a former member of the CBI-SIT team that both the terror attacks (Parliament and Mumbai) were staged “with the objective of strengthening the counter-terror legislation(sic).”

On the other hand we are the victim of terrorism from last decade or so but what have our politicians done to strengthen their security controls. Terrorists are arrested by police, FC and other security forces by laying their lives in danger but in courts the same terrorists are set free because of weaknesses in our law. Then these terrorists go and kill the same security personals who had arrested them. Those few who are sentenced to  death are kept in the jails and one day they are released by their fellow members in a jail break.

We already lost thousands of lives and we are daily hit by terrorist but our politicians, our government and opposition leaders no one is interested to come up with a bill to support our security forces and strengthen our laws so that no terrorist or criminal can escape using the weakness in these laws.

These two incidents are wakeup calls for the government. On priority basis the government should present a new and strict act against terrorism or amend the present laws so that the terrorist once arrested, cannot escape using the weaknesses in the law. On the other hand government needs to expedite the process of negotiations with TTP. In the last 6 months the government has not even moved a step ahead in this process which has ultimately helped the terrorists.

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