Safwat Ghayur: a legend 14 years after martyrdom

PESHAWAR: Fourteen years after his martyrdom, Safwat Ghayur remains a legendary figure in the police force. On August 4, 2010, Ghayur, then commandant of the Frontier Constabulary, was targeted by a suicide bomber just outside his office in Saddar.

His sacrifice is commemorated annually on Martyrs Day, honoring fallen heroes of the police and other forces.

Safwat’s car is placed in the FC headquarters as a monument and is visited regularly by people from different walks of life.

On the other hand, whenever a capital city police chief picks the wireless phone and makes a call to give instructions to his men, he intentionally or unintentionally pays tributes to the senior most officer of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police who sacrificed his life for the restoration of peace.

The call-sign of the capital city police officer, a code word that is used for communication with the force on wireless phones, is Safwat. It used to be Adil when the then inspector general Nasir Khan Durrani replaced it with Safwat to pay tributes to the legend.

Also, the offices of the capital city police chief and other senior officers are located at the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines, the headquarters of the Peshawar Police named after the most revered cop of the KP who was martyred along with other policemen and civilians in a suicide attack in January 2007.

“Safwat and Saad were the true legends. I feel proud to be among the successors of the legacy of the two greats and will do my best to lead the force like them,” said capital city police officer Qasim Ali Khan.

The death anniversary of Safwat Ghayur is being observed today, which is officially declared the Martyrs Day across the country. Apart from presenting salutes at the graves of fallen heroes, blood donation camps, Quran Khwani, walks and a series of events will be held across the country.

The Inspector General of Police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Akhtar Hayat Khan said on Saturday that the KP Police had sacrificed the most for peace in the country during the last two decades.

Attacks on police have once again increased during the last several years. As many as 222 policemen were martyred in different kinds of attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since January last year.

Most of these cops were martyred in attacks carried out in Peshawar, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan districts. Dera Ismail Khan, the hometown of the KP governor and chief minister, has been witnessing the worst law and order for the last few years.

The total casualties of the force last year were 175 while 47 policemen have lost lives during the current year. Last year, over 85 policemen were martyred in a single attack on the headquarters of Peshawar Police in January.

While going through the statistics since 2006, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police have sacrificed 1,716 policemen from the rank of constable up to additional inspector general in the last 18 years.

The total number of fallen heroes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 1970 is 2085, out of which 369 were martyred till 2006.

The worst year for police in KP was 2009 when 207 policemen, including one SP, three DSPs, four inspectors, 18 sub-inspectors and 16 ASIs were martyred in different terrorist attacks.

According to the record of the KP Police, 28 policemen were martyred in attacks in 2006, 107 in 2007, 176 in 2008, 207 in 2009, 101 in 2010 and 148 in 2011. The number of the fallen policemen came down to 94 in 2012 but increased again to 133 in 2013 and 108 in 2014.

As many as 61 policemen were martyred in KP in 2015, 74 in 2016, 36 in 2017, 30 in 2018, 38 in 2019, 34 in 2020.

Attacks once again started an increase in 2021. As many as 44 policemen lost lives in 2021, 56 in 2022, 175 in 2023 while 47 are martyred during the current year so far.

Abid Ali, the then DIG Bannu Region, was the first senior officer who embraced martyrdom in December 2006. He was shot dead along with his driver by armed men on Kohat Road near Matani in Peshawar district.

In January 2007, the then CCPO Peshawar and one of the most revered cops, Malik Mohammad Saad, was targeted by a suicide bomber when he was inspecting security arrangements along with other senior officials for the route of a Muharram procession in Dhakki Dalgaran near Qissa Khwani. This was just the beginning of an unending series of attacks on security personnel and civilians all over Pakistan.

The senior most among the policemen martyred in attacks by the terrorists were commandant FC Safwat Ghayur and Additional IGP Muhammad Ashraf Noor.

There were a number of SSPs, SPs and DSPs along with hundreds of junior cops who sacrificed their lives in the last two decades. Among the SPs, Iqbal Marwat was the youngest who died in a suicide bombing in February 2010. Another DPO, Khurshid Khan from Lower Dir, lost his life during an encounter with terrorists in March 2009.

Peshawar lost three SPs, Kalam Khan, Khursheed Khan and Hilal Haider, during the year 2012 alone.

A senior police officer from KP, Hilal Khan, along with two army officers lost their lives in an ambush in Chilas town of Gilgit-Baltistan in 2013.

ASP Salman Ayaz embraced martyrdom in Rawalpindi in 2007. Sajid Khan Mohmand posted as DPO Qilla Abdullah was martyred in a bombing in Chaman. Sajid Khan belonged to the Mohmand tribe and was born in Shabqadar town of Charsadda district.

Attacks on police have accelerated again in recent years in which a number of cops including acting SPs and DSPs have lost lives.