QUETTA: Balochistan police have confirmed that a man killed two days back in Loralai district was a former commander of the Afghan army, who had been living in the neighbourhood with a pseudonym “Ghaffar” by hushing up his actual identity.
According to police, Barat Khan, known by his adopted name Ghaffar, was shot dead on August 18 at the Loralai Sabzi Mandi while buying vegetables from a shop.
Loralai Sub-Divisional Police Officer DSP Kaleemullah told Urdu News that “eyewitnesses informed the police that before the shooting, the killer called out Barat Khan by name and then fired at him with a pistol.”
Barat Khan died on the spot after being shot twice in the chest. The killer escaped on a motorcycle with an accomplice, he said while quoting the eyewitnesses.
DSP Kaleemullah added that Barat Khan had been living in Sulaiman Khel, Loralai, with his uncle, brother, and other relatives.
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Khan was running a vegetable shop near the government teaching hospital in Loralai and would visit the Sabzi Mandi daily to buy vegetables for his shop. The killers monitored this routine to target him, the police officer said.
Loralai district police chief SSP Muhammad Zafar Buzdar stated that it has been learned that the deceased was originally from Afghanistan and had been living under a changed identity in Loralai for the past two to three years. The victim’s brother told the police that they had no enmity in Pakistan, but they did have enemies in Afghanistan. The police have registered a case and initiated an investigation.
According to sources, the deceased was known as Barat Khan in Afghanistan. He was from the Wazi Khwa District of Paktika province and had served as a commander in the reserve unit of the Afghan forces in various districts of Paktika.
This is not the first incident of this kind in Balochistan.
In October 2022, unknown assailants shot and killed former Afghan police commander Abdul Samad Achakzai in the Eastern Bypass area of Quetta.
Achakzai was the former deputy district police chief of Panjwai district, Kandahar province.
A few days before his death, Abdul Samad had issued a statement on social media regarding a bomb attack at an educational center in Kabul, stating, “We will not sit silent.”
After the overthrow of the Ashraf Ghani government in Afghanistan in August 2021 and the Taliban’s rise to power, a large number of former Afghan government and military personnel fled to Pakistan and other countries.
Following the assassination of Barat Khan, a debate has erupted on social media between supporters of the Taliban and the former Afghan government.
Officials and supporters of the former Afghan government have blamed the Afghan Taliban for the murder. Ex-colleagues of the victim alleged that before the murder, a Taliban official had threatened to kill Barat Khan over the phone. They also claimed that 19 members of Barat Khan’s family have been killed by the Taliban.