Know Pakistan's Dirty Harry, the fearless cop who survived 9 assassination attempts

New Delhi: For years, Karachi's Dirty Harry, Chaudhry Aslam Khan had been grappling with the terrorists to maintain law and order in Pakistan. Also called the cop with the nine lives, he had been shot 5 times and survived nine assassination attempts. But he ran out of luck on January 9, 2014 when he was killed in a suicide attack by the militant organization Tehrik-e-Taliban. The cop gets his media name from a fictional character “Dirty Harry,” the hero of a 1971 film series featuring fictional San Francisco Police Department Homicide Division Inspector “Dirty” Harry Callahan, portrayed by eminent Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood, the 1821 movie.An honest police investigator, he was a man of courage and strength. While he was a hero for some, he was also a villain for many. Aslam never looked like a senior SSP, a chain smoker, carrying Glock pistol and adorned in starched white unbuttoned salwar-kurta, he rather resembled those whom he had to take on. He started his career in 1987 as an assistant sub-inspector. He was famous for his law enforcement strategies which included killing, torturing criminal suspects, encounters, killing those in custody and staging operations in which suspects were killed.In 1994, he was promoted as Gulbahar Station House officer. The testing time in his career came when the controversial clean up operation started in Karachi against the militants of Muttahida Qaumi Movement. At that time, extrajudicial killing were happening and almost all associated with the Muhajir Qaumi Movement were killed in police encounters. And most of the officers associated with the ‘Karachi operation' were assassinated. However, Aslam Khan survived with his own wit and grit.Then, in 2005 he caught the big fish underworld don Shoaib Khan and was promoted as DSP. When he became SP, he headed the Lyari Task Force and cracked down the Lyari gangsters Rehman Dakait and Arshad Pappu. He was arrested for killing gangster Mashooq Brohi. Mashooq had been involved in kidnapping for ransom and murders since 1995. Another medal in his showcase was the arrest of Saulat Mirza in 1998, a major figure in the militant wing of the MQM. Mirza was a prize catch for him at the Karachi airport when he was returning from Bangkok. In 2006 he was put behind bars for killing Brohi and had to spend 16 months in jail.In 2009, he then won another milestone by killing Lyari gangster Rehman Dakait and his three associates in an encounter.A man, who takes on the responsibility of cleaning the filth of the society, naturally has numerous enemies.He was always making headlines for surviving various assassination attempts by his enemies. Once in September, 2011, on his Defence Society residence, terrorists targeted the family of Aslam, but Aslam proved once again that no one could faze him. The terrorists had planted a bomb in his neighborhood but even though the front of the house was blown away, luckily, all of his family members escaped serious injuries.And the brave cop ran to help the dead and injured. “I will bury the attackers in the same place here,” he said as he pointed to the 8 by 6 foot crater. “I will not step back. I will carry on with my jihad [against the terrorists] until the day of judgement.” He said as reported by a Pakistani daily. Choudhry Aslam Khan was among the few people who work for the society fearlessly. Due to his nature of work, he drove many enemies to his life and thus was killed in a suicide attack.