Daily Times

PESHAWAR: A lieutenant colonel of Pakistan Army was shot dead by unidentified assailants near Ring Road, Hayatabad, on Friday.

SP Peshawar Cantt Kashif Zulfiqar said Lt Col Tariq Ghafoor, a resident of Hayatabad Phase VI area, was on his way to a nearby mosque to offer Friday prayers when he was targeted. SP Kashif further said that the attack might be the result of a personal enmity. Spokesperson for the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group, Muhammad Khorasani, claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent to journalists. Ghafoor was posted in Peshawar and was undergoing postgraduate studies at a government university, said a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). Confirming the incident, SSP city said the officer of senior rank received two bullets in the head and succumbed to his injuries on the spot.

The deceased was the son of Maj Gen (r) Fazal Ghafoor, who also served as Frontier Corps inspector general between 1994-1997 and later as a diplomat, after retiring from military service. Hayatabad is a posh suburb of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Peshawar on the south-western fringe of the city. Pakistan Army also confirmed the killing. “Lt Col Tariq Ghafoor embraced martyrdom due to firing by unidentified assailant after Friday prayers near Sarband Ring Road, Peshawar,” the ISPR said in a statement. “The officer was posted at Peshawar and was undergoing post graduate studies at a government university.” On Thursday, a Frontier Corps official was found dead inside his vehicle in Jharga village of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, within the jurisdiction area of Chamkani Police Station.