Zulfiqar Ahmad
His father did not want him to join the police. He had his reasons. Like many people who had dealt with the institution over the years, he had little patience for what he saw as corruption and abuse of authority.
When his son cleared the test for assistant sub-inspector (ASI), joining the police was therefore not something he encouraged. The son joined anyway.
That son is Muhammad Khalid, a BPS-19 police officer from Chitral who has recently been nominated for Tamgha-e-Shujaat for his gallantry in the fight against terrorism.
There is an irony in that journey, but it is also a story about how a reluctant recruit gradually found himself at the centre of some of the country’s most difficult policing assignments.
Khalid comes from Ujnu, a remote village in Torkhow, Chitral. It is a place of striking mountain scenery but limited resources and opportunities.
For many residents, the difficulties of life in such a remote area have made relocation an understandable consideration.
One of my favourite teachers, Abdul Ahad sahib, recently illustrated that tension with a characteristic Chitrali joke.
A journalist asked him whether he would prefer to have a house in Peshawar or remain in Ujnu. His answer was immediate: “Pekhawar kho Pekhawar de kana, or Peshawar is Peshawar.”
Khalid’s own departure from the mountains was not driven by an early ambition to build a career in policing. After clearing the recruitment test, he joined Chitral Police as an ASI.
For years, he worked his way through the ordinary demands of policing in Chitral, serving in police stations and postings that offered little of the comfort or visibility associated with senior police assignments. He kept rising through the ranks.
Then came Hangu. As District Police Officer (DPO), Khalid found himself responsible for policing in a district that has repeatedly faced militant violence.
In July 2025, he was injured during an operation against terrorists in the Zargari area of Hangu.
Reports said he was leading the operation when he was wounded. Several terrorists were killed in the ensuing encounter. Khalid was taken to hospital with gunshot wounds.
The incident could easily have become the defining moment of his career. Instead, after recovering, he returned to duty.
He was subsequently posted to Bajaur as DPO, taking charge in another district where police operations against militants remain a demanding part of the job.
His career in the field has earned him a reputation for courage. Officials publicly praised his conduct after the Hangu attack, with the provincial chief minister describing him as brave in the line of duty.
There is another, more personal thread to Khalid’s story. His grandfather, Muhammad Isa, is remembered in local accounts for his role during the historic Siege of Chitral.
The comparison is tempting: a grandfather associated with the defence of Chitral in an earlier era and a grandson who would eventually find himself confronting militants in some of the country’s most dangerous districts.
The circumstances are different. So are the battles. But the family connection gives Khalid’s story an unusual historical echo.
Today, Khalid serves in Peshawar as an Additional AIG, having risen a long way from the reluctant tiny ASI who began his career in Chitral.
And that brings the story back to his father. The older man had distrusted the police as an institution and did not want his son to become part of it.
His son’s career, however, took a very different direction: into difficult postings, dangerous operations and, ultimately, recognition for gallantry.
That does not erase the reasons his father once disliked the police. Nor does one officer’s career change the problems that have long affected the institution.
But it does make Khalid’s journey more interesting. He entered the police reluctantly. He was wounded in the line of duty.
He returned to the field. He went on to serve in another conflict-affected district. And now he has been nominated for a national gallantry award.
The irony is hard to miss. The son of a man who did not want him to wear the police uniform ended up building his career around it.
For his father, the police may once have represented an institution he did not trust.
For Khalid, the uniform ultimately became a place in which he would be tested, and, on several occasions, put his life at risk.
Whatever his father’s reservations about the institution, one thing is harder to dispute: his son has given him a very different reason to look at that uniform.