This Top Pak Investigator of 26/11 Attack Also Probed Benazir Assassination

Advertisement
Read Time: 3 mins
Tariq Khosa, as Director General of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, headed the investigation into the Mumbai terror attacks.
New Delhi: Tariq Khosa - the former Pakistani top cop whose editorial on investigations into the 26/11 Mumbai attack is making headlines in India - probed several other high-profile cases including the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Mr Khosa took over as Director General of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency or FIA in January 2009, just two months after the terror attack in Mumbai in November 2008, when 10 Lashkar-e Taiba terrorists sneaked into the city on a boat and attacked major landmarks killing 166 people.

Mr Khosa, who headed the investigation in 2009, has in his editorial in the newspaper Dawn, backed India's claim that the attack was "planned and launched" in Pakistan. By Tuesday evening, Tariq Khosa topped Twitter's India trends.
   
It was in his role as the head of the federal police that he also "initiated criminal investigation of the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto," his website says, adding that he was also entrusted with several "high-profile corruption cases for investigation."

Described by Pakistani media as an "officer known for his integrity and impeccable character," Mr Khosa was removed from the post of FIA director general in December 2009 amid allegations that he was being transferred out to thwart his investigations into a massive corruption scandal in the country's steel mills.

Before he headed Pakistan's FIA, Mr Khosla served as police chief of the Balochistan Province.

His last assignment in service was as secretary narcotics and he is credited with formulating a new Anti-Narcotics Policy in 2010. Mr Khosa retired in January, 2011.

The former top cop has a masters in English Literature from the Government College Lahore; he joined the Police Service of Pakistan in 1976.

He is also a graduate of the National Defence University, Islamabad, with a masters in Defence and Strategic Studies.

As his "proudest achievement" he lists being elected as the INTERPOL Executive Committee Delegate for Asia in 2009.

He likes to read, write, play golf and travel, says his website.