Prime Minister Imran Khan has done the right thing by ordering in inquiry into the abduction and murder of Superintendent Police (SP), Rural Peshawar, Tahir Dawar. This must be conducted at the earliest and the findings made public. But it must be understood that this should be considered an internal probe. For it is not enough to simply summon the Afghan Charge d’Affaires twice to garner insight into how SP Dawar was picked up from the federal capital last month only to turn up dead weeks later in Nangarhar province on the other side of the border. The Kabul government must share whatever information it may have. Dawar’s son has called for an international investigation. Indeed, it is the correct way of avoiding unnecessary speculation and finger-pointing at this stage. And while Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor is better placed than most to conclude that the involvement of the Afghan authorities is more likely than that of a terrorist organisation — unless and until Pakistan has concrete proof of this Kabul will simply accuse the latter of a smear campaign; thereby deflecting attention from the matter at hand. And then there are fears of a cover-up here at home. Not least because both the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Islamabad police were notified a day after Dawar’s disappearance; with an FIR being lodged. To be sure, this is not to accuse the country’s law enforcement of wrongdoing. But it is to remind that that passions are running high. SP Dawar was originally from Waziristan and still fresh in everyone’s mind is the Rao Anwar case in which a serving Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) went on trial for the murder of a young Pashtun man: Naqeebullah Mehsud. And still the victim’s family are no nearer to seeing justice delivered; despite the death prompting the launch of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). Rather, much of the spotlight has been on discrediting the latter. Thus the best bet for all concerned might be an international probe alongside one carried out by the Pakistani state. * Published in Daily Times, November 16th 2018.