PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will observe the Police Martyrs Day tomorrow (Sunday) to pay homage to the police personnel over sacrifices in the war against terrorism.

The day is marked every year on August 4, which is the death anniversary of Frontier Constabulary inspector general Safwat Ghayyur, who was martyred in a suicide attack near his office in 2010.

Information minister Shaukat Yousafzai told reporters at the civil secretariat here on Friday that the province would remember the police officials, who laid down life for the peace, in a befitting manner.

Minister says police sacrifices restored peace

Accompanied by DIG Dr Fasihuddin and other police officials, he said the province’s police had acted as the frontline force in the war against terrorism and it had most sacrifices to its credit.

Mr Yousafzai said the KP police’s 1,726 personnel were martyred, while more than 1,650 officials were injured during the fight against terrorism over a decade and half.

He said terrorism had plagued the province for more than 15 years as the frontline area of the war.

The minister said the personnel of security forces and police had sacrificed their present for the nation’s future and today’s peace was result of their selfless and timeless sacrifices.

He said the police were neither trained to fight terrorism nor doing so was their job but even then, they transformed their very role to combat terrorism and managed to win back the province’s peace through huge sacrifices.

The minister said the country and province’s peace has been restored and therefore, the martyred police officials should be remembered befittingly.

He said merged districts were affected the most by the fight against terrorism, while the Levies and Khasadar forces, which had been merged with police, rendered huge sacrifices for peace.

Mr Yousafzai said a police constable deputed at Peshawar Press Club gate saved lives of a large number of journalists by stopping a suicide bomber from entering the club’s premises.

He paid tribute to police martyrs saying their sacrifices have brought back the province’s peace.

The minister praised tribute to three women constables from Swat, Nowshera and Peshawar, who laid down life in fight against terrorism.

“The nation owes the prevailing peace to the sacrifices of police martyrs,” he said adding that those sacrifices should be highlighted.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2019