QUETTA: A former police official who was dismissed from service on an inquiry tribunal’s order after the May 2011 Kharotabad incident, was shot dead in the Masjid Road area here on Sunday.

Police officials said that former station house officer Fazlur Rehman Kakar was sitting with his friends at a car showroom when gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on him, killing him on the spot.

The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Police and personnel of Frontier Corps (FC) shifted the body to the Civil Hospital. “The assailants had targeted the victim’s head and chest when firing at him,” hospital sources said.

A senior police official recalled that Mr Kakar was the SHO of Airport police station in 2011 when five Chechen nationals, including two women, were killed in an “encounter” with police and FC personnel in the Khaizi area of Kharotabad, a locality on the outskirts of Quetta.

The government had constituted a tribunal headed by a judge of the Balochistan High Court to conduct an inquiry into the incident. The commission had held Quetta Capital City Police Officer Daud Junejo, FC Colonel Faisal Shehzad, SHO Kakar and ASI Raza Khan responsible for the killing of the Chechen nationals over suspicion that they were terrorists and wanted to attack a check-post near the airport.

SHO Kakar and ASI Khan were dismissed from service on the recommendations of the tribunal and action was also taken against other officials.

Later Mr Khan was killed by gunmen in the Killi Mubarak area of Quetta. Police surgeon Baqir Shah, who conducted autopsy of the bodies of the Chechens, was also killed by armed men the same year after receiving death threats.

Police officials said that Mr Kakar was running vehicle selling business after removal from police department.

Police have registered a case and started investigation into the killing of Mr Kakar.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the banned TTP posted a statement on social media, claiming responsibility for the killing of the former police officer. “We have targeted Fazlur Rehman as we killed ASI Raza Khan,” the statement said.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2018