Ehsanullah Ehsan Alleges SP Tahir Dawar Was Killed By State Institutions

Former Tehreek-e-Taliban spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan has alleged that Pakistan's state institutions were responsible for the murder of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa SP Tahir Dawar.

SP Tahir Dawar went missing on October 26, 2018, from a residential area in Islamabad. The officer was posted in Peshawar and had been abducted following his arrival in the capital. Two weeks later, the officer’s badly tortured body was found in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.

Following his disappearance and murder, the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement had accused the state institutions of Dawar's killing; however, the government denied such allegations.

Ehsanullah Ehsan said Dawar was allegedly kidnapped and was moved to the Afghan border via Khyber, where he was handed over to a militant commander named Usman. According to the ex-TTP leader, Usman was then allegedly told to take the slain officer to Afghanistan and murder him.

Usman, who hails from Landi Kotal, was further told that the body should be dumped in a place where the murder could easily be pinned on Islamic State, alleged Ehsan.

According to the former TTP spokesperson, Dawar was killed over his sympathies for the PTM. He claimed that there was an alleged plan to kill two more officers, but the plan was postponed after the uproar that followed the death of Tahir Dawar.

There has been no comment by the state on the claims made by Ehsan as of yet.

It may be noted here that Ehsanullah Ehsan had fled from the safe house on January 11, where he was being kept for almost three years. The News had quoted Ehsanullah Ehsan as saying that he had arrived in Turkey along with his family.

Weeks after his escape, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Babar Iftikhar said that the Pakistan Army was ‘using’ Ehsanullah Ehsan to ‘gain information’ against the terror outfits.