Mohammad Tahir Khan Dawar (Urdu: طاہر داوڑ; Pashto: طاهر داوړ) was a Pakistani police officer who was abducted from Islamabad on 26 October 2018 and then tortured and killed.
His body was found on 13 November 2018 by the locals in the Dur Baba District of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, close to the Torkham border crossing.
[11] After the discovery of his dead body, some Pakistani officials, including the Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor, expressed concerns for a possible involvement of foreign hands behind the murder.
[17] Tahir completed his secondary education in 1982 in Eidak, a village west of Mirali on the periphery of Miramshah, the capital city of North Waziristan.
He said that the Indian intelligence agency RAW, the US CIA, and Afghanistan posed threats to Pakistan, and that the focus of their activities was to target the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.
However, at 7:15pm [27 October], his wife received a text message that Tahir was in Sarai Alamgir near Jhelum.”[2] Another message said: “There is a signal issue in the area; so do not panic if my mobile is found switched off.”[22] The police officials investigating the kidnapping case informed that Tahir had dinner on 26 October at his residence in Islamabad, then he went out alone on foot at around 7pm, and his mobile phone was found to be switched off from around 8pm.
[22] On 13 November, i.e. 18 days after Tahir's disappearance, his tortured dead body was found about 100 meters away from the Durand Line,[25] in the Dur Baba District of the province of Nangarhar, Afghanistan.
He was buried the same day at a cemetery in the Momand Dara area in Nangarhar,[6] after the washing and shrouding of his body and performing the Islamic funeral prayer for him.
[26] On 14 November, Tahir's body was exhumed from the cemetery in Momand Dara, and carried to Jalalabad on the order of Hayatullah Hayat, Governor of Nangarhar.
[32][33] In a Pashto note handwritten on a blank piece of paper, which was reportedly placed on the chest of the dead body of Tahir, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIL-KP) claimed responsibility of the murder.
Some political analysts, journalists, and activists have questioned the authenticity of the handwritten note found besides the body, arguing that ISIL makes its official claims through Amaq Agency, not in this manner.
[8][16] Mohsin Dawar, who represents North Waziristan in the National Assembly of Pakistan and is one of the leaders of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, was also unconvinced.
[30] The Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor also condemned the murder saying we lost our brave officer and Hinting at a broader involvement of foreign powers behind the case, Asif Ghafoor said: “[Tahir's] abduction, move to Afghanistan, murder and follow up behavior of Afghan authorities raises questions, which indicate involvement or resources more than a terrorist organization in Afghanistan.”[36][6] Omar Zakhilwal, Afghanistan's ambassador in Islamabad, expressed grief over the case and asked the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to sit together and talk about who would have murdered Tahir.
[38] Supporters of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) held protest rallies in several cities of Pakistan and demanded for an international commission to investigate the case.
[34] Mohsin Dawar, who is one of the leaders of PTM and also represents North Waziristan in the National Assembly of Pakistan, expressed shock over Tahir's murder and said: “Explaining this in the same old ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban drama will not work anymore.
His abductors have to be made answerable.”[39] Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party's leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai equated the murder of Tahir with Jamal Khashoggi, saying "both incidents required international probe.
"[40] Awami National Party held protest rallies in several cities across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa[5] and backed the demand of PTM to call for an international inquiry.