Senior cop killed in Taliban suicide attack in Pakistan
By Awais Saleem, IANSWednesday, August 4, 2010
ISLAMABAD - Inspector General of the Frontier Constabulary (FC), Sifwat Ghayur, was killed in a suicide attack Wednesday in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar, police said, with the Taliban claiming responsibility for the assault.
At least three guards accompanying Sifwat were also killed in the attack Wednesday evening targeting his official vehicle in the thickly populated Saddar area of Peshawar, capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province. Ten others sustained injuries.
The Tehreek-i-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Sifwat had formerly been the chief of Peshawar’s city police for several years taking active part in operations against terrorist outfits before assuming the charge as the commandant of FC.
Senior minister of KPK, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, visited the blast site and termed it a great loss for the police service and the country.
He said that two suicide attackers had targeted the vehicle of FC that resulted in the killing of Sifwat. However, additional IG of bomb disposal squad Shafqat Malik later confirmed that only one suicider boarding a cab had hit the vehicle of Sifwat.
The deceased was brother-in-law of former federal minister for interior, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao.
This is the second high profile target taken out in terrorist activities in the troubled KPK province in the last fortnight.
Unidentified attackers July 24 had shot dead Rashid Hussain, son of KPK minister for information Iftikhar Hussain.
