Chaudhry Aslam Khan

In 2019 it was announced that an action movie based on his life will be released, Chaudhry – The Martyr, directed by Azeem Sajjad. Chaudhry’s role will be played by his cousin Chaudhry Tariq Islam, who hails from the same villages, is a DSP himself, and worked with Khan for over thirty years; the director acknowledged he had cast him because he’s “well versed with [Khan’s] body language, gestures, attitude and reflexes.”

Chaudhary Aslam Khan was a Pakistani police officer known for his tough actions against criminals. In 2014 he was assassinated in Karachi by the Taliban.

Aslam joined the Sindh Police force in 1987 as SHO (Station House Officer) and served in several police stations across Karachi and in Balochistan due to provincial allocation. Chaudhry Aslam gained fame after working as an encounter specialist from 1992-1994 and 1996-1997. Chaudhry was suspended and came back to service in 2004 and was given the task of eradicating target killers. Later he was ordered to lead the LTF (Lyari Task Force) and end the gangwar in Lyari Town. From 2005-2014 Chaudhry Aslam arrested terrorists, gangwar-criminals, target killers and extortionists belonging to TTP, BLA, MQM, ANP, TMP, LJ, LeT and SSP. On 9 January 2014, he was killed in a bomb blast carried out by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. In 2017 Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian national arrested in Balochistan on the allegations of spying and terrorism, confessed in a video released by DG ISPR that the assassination of Aslam was sponsored by Indian intelligence agency Research Analysis Wing on the directions of Anil Dhasmana. The validity of the video, however, has been criticised, with the Indian side claiming it to be doctored and forced upon Jadhav.

On 9 January 2014, he died along with two other officers, his guard and driver, when a bomb targeted his convoy on the Lyari expressway in Karachi. The Mohmand Agency chapter of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack. Sajjad Mohmand, a spokesman for the militant group, said Aslam was targeted for carrying out operations against the TTP. “Aslam was involved in killing Taliban prisoners in CID cells in Karachi and was on the top of our hit-list,” he said.

Aslam won himself a reputation for his performance in the 2012 ‘Lyari grand operation’ which once again aimed at clearing the area of criminals.

In 2011, he escaped unhurt from a Taliban attack on his house situated in the Defence Phase VIII area of Karachi. The attack resulted in the death of eight people. TTP claimed responsibility for the attack as retaliation for ongoing efforts against them, including the arrest and killing of many of the organisation’s fighters. At that time, a defiant Aslam, whose home was half blown away by the blast, said he knew he was the target but it would not deter him from fighting against extremists.

In 2010, Aslam was appointed as head of the Investigation Wing in the Criminal Investigation Department.