Slain Pakistan cop had 'phone row' with Taliban

A top Pakistani policeman killed by a Taliban bomb had a blazing phone row with the militants' spokesman a few days before his death, an investigator said Friday. Chaudhry Aslam, renowned for his fearless work tackling militants in Karachi, died Thursday in a bomb blast targeting his vehicle, an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban. The governor of southern Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, has recommended Aslam, who survived several previous assassination attempts, for a posthumous national bravery honour. Chief investigator Zafar Abbas Bukhari told reporters that Shahidullah Shahid, the main spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) earlier in the week to warn him to stop targeting the militants in Karachi. "You have inflicted much damage to our men," Bukhari quoted Shahid as telling Aslam. "They had a bitter argument, to the extent of calling each other names." Soon after the blast police said it was a suicide attack, saying the bomber rammed Aslam's vehicle on an expressway, but officials are now investigating whether it could have been a planted device. Bomb disposal officials estimate that up to 25 kilograms of explosives were used in the blast, which tossed Aslam's bulletproof vehicle some 20 metres across the road.