"Tariq Ahmed never lets his pistol out of his sight these days. Sitting cross-legged on a woven charpai, his face concealed with a scarf, the 26-year-old looks nervously left and right, shifting his gun in and out of his waistband. It was here, just a few months ago in this neighbourhood bordering Pakistan's north-western border city of Peshawar that his uncle Shehan Shah, 36, was shot dead at point blank range by the Taliban."
"But as Shah stepped out one early Saturday morning in June, to make his way on foot to Hashtnagri police station, he was followed by masked men on a motorbike. As one drew out an AK-47 rifle, Shah spotted him and tried to wrestle it away but the accomplice raised a pistol and riddled Shah with bullets. The attackers were never caught but it did not take long for the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to take credit for Shah's killing."
Police officers and their families in Pakistan's north-west live under persistent threat as Taliban militants increasingly target law enforcement. Targeted assassinations and suicide bombings have struck individual officers and police units, with attackers often escaping capture while the Pakistan Taliban (TTP) claims responsibility. Militants operate across villages near the Afghanistan border and appear to use local informants to identify officers involved in raids. Survivors and colleagues report heightened vigilance, restricted movement, and constant fear. The surge in Taliban militancy across the border region has rapidly become a major national security concern for the country.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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