Cop killed while defending a Sikh healer in Peshawar

Tuesday, as unknown gunmen opened fire at a Sikh healer’s clinic in the Peshawar outskirts, a police officer accepted martyrdom while defending him.

40-year-old ex-serviceman Constable Farhad was killed when gunmen opened fire on Guljit Singh’s clinic in the Baghbanan neighborhood inside the Inquilab police station’s boundaries. The Sikh healer, though, was unharmed.

Syed Ashfaq Anwar, the chief of police in Peshawar, stated that the Sikh community was protected.

He went on, “The Sikh healer was spared in the attack, and the policeman gave his life in defense of him.”

The city’s police chief went on to state that nothing could be spoken about the event at this time because an investigation was still ongoing.

Regarding the incident, the Sikh community has voiced its concerns.

The Express Tribune was informed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Sikh leader Baba Gurpal Singh that around one hundred families from his community had left Peshawar in recent years due to terrorism, joblessness, and targeted killings.

The majority of them have moved to the US, Canada, and Europe, he continued, with a small number settling in Punjabi households.

In the past several years, 18 Sikhs have died and 11 have been wounded in terrorist assaults, according to Gurpal.

“All we can do is ask the government to provide us with improved security and a conducive environment.”

Shaukat Abbas, the head of K-P Counter Terrorism Department, had previously stated that Daesh, an international terrorist group, was responsible for the deaths of Sikh and Christian communities in the province as well as other significant targets. However, last year, Peshawar saw the dismantling of Daesh’s network.

In Peshawar in 2023, the “last” terrorist in the network was also slain.

But throughout the province, the attack on Tuesday has raised concerns.

The data from K-P CTD indicates that there has been a noticeable rise in terrorist occurrences this year.
There have been 131 terrorist incidents in K-P and its tribal territories alone between January and March.

There were more than sixty of them on the police, with the greatest concentration occurring in the southern areas.
Manmohan Singh, a Sikh businessman, was shot and killed by unidentified motorcycle riders in Peshawar’s Kakshal neighborhood in June of last year.

Chief Minister of KPK Ali Amin Khan Gandapur denounced the assault on the police officer tasked with protecting a Sikh person in Peshawar.

He conveyed his sorrow for the constable’s martyrdom.

The K-P chief minister sent his sympathies to the policeman’s family in a statement, asking God to give them the strength to cope with their loss.

Gandapur instructed the relevant authorities to take the required actions to enhance religious minority’ security.

He promised that those responsible for the attack will be apprehended and prosecuted.

The martyr’s family was reassured by the K-P CM that the province government would help them in every way and would not abandon them in their hour of need.