KUALA LUMPUR: The late Tan Sri Zaman Khan Rahim Khan was regarded as “one of the most respected policemen in the country” by the media for good reason.

       He was Kuala Lumpur police chief from 1984 - 1987, and one night, when he could not sleep, he famously went for a drive and turned up at a crime prevention roadblock.

       A revered man: Zaman Khan, who was interviewed by The Star in March, famously led the hunt for the Penang prison escapees in 1981.

       What a shock his men got when the city’s top cop arrived alone in the dead of night -- and in civilian clothing -- to check up on them.

       After he left, he overheard his men chatting on the police band and one said: “Tak payah tidur ke orang tua tu? (Doesn’t that old man need to sleep?)”

       “They didn’t know my walkie-talkie was on,” Zaman Khan recalled with a laugh when The Star interviewed him in March this year.

       It seemed he was a night owl, because when The Star published its first issue on Sept 9, 1971, he was there in the wee hours watching the first ever pages of the newspaper come off the press. He was the George Town OCPD, back then.

       “Your first office in Weld Quay was right in front of the clan jetties and there were still port activities there. We were clamping down on smuggling, so I liked hanging out at your office, which was busily printing your paper late into the night.

       “There were many people I could talk to there to get to know the neighbourhood,” Zaman Khan said.

       Born in Pasir Mas, Kelantan on Dec 21, 1941, Zaman Khan would have been 80 this year.

       Many Malaysians united in grief when they heard news that he had passed away yesterday at 10.15am, at the National Heart Institute.

       He suffered from kidney failure for many years and went for haemodialysis on alternate days.

       He was open about it, telling friends and associates which days not to call him because the haemodialysis sessions made him “rather blur”.

       Zaman Khan was supposed to see the doctor in Kuala Lumpur Hospital yesterday when he suddenly fainted and was rushed to the High Dependency Ward at the National Heart Institute.

       After his passing, his remains were brought to the Bukit Aman Mosque for prayers and laid to rest at Bukit Kiara Muslim Cemetery.

       Zaman Khan joined the force in 1962 as a cadet assistant superintendent and thereafter, his decades as a law enforcer were nothing short of epic.

       He was in the thick of the action when the country’s worst criminals were at large.

       There was Wong Swee Chin a.k.a. Botak Chin, the gangster and robber who killed many people. There was P. Kalimuthu a.k.a. Bentong Kali, another murderous gangster.

       And also Maznah Ismail a.k.a. Mona Fandey, occultist and murderer.

       He was involved in the handling of the Japanese Red Army hostage situation of 1975, and he was shot at by Adam Jaafar a.k.a. Prebet Adam, a soldier who went on a shooting rampage in the capital in 1987.

       When Ops Lalang – which saw the arrest of 106 politicians and social activists – took place on Oct 27, 1987, Zaman Khan was Bukit Aman director of Internal Security.

       At the time, he made jaws drop when he pressed for the Umno general assembly to be cancelled.

       In August 1988, he happened to be the Bukit Aman Crime Investigation Department director when the infamous sex tapes case of then deputy Dewan Rakyat speaker DP Vijandran broke out.

       When prisoners escaped from Penang Prison in the early 80s and hid on the island, Zaman Khan was the police chief

       He sniffed them out after his friend living near Mount Erskine cemetery complained to him about rambutans in his tree going missing. The cop sensed that the escaped prisoners were hiding in the woods near the cemetery.

       One of those who remembers Zaman Khan’s time as Penang police chief is then crime reporter Tommy Lee.

       “Zaman Khan was the most approachable, cooperative and accommodating chief police officer I ever met. When I needed to clarify something, I had to call him, and even if he was on his personal time, like on the golf course, he would still answer.

       “He would duly and sportingly furnish all the comments and clarification we needed. I deeply respected him for his openness,” Lee said.

       Before retiring from public service, Zaman Khan was the Prisons Department director-general.

       He and his wife Puan Sri Rosnah Ahmad were blessed with five children, 21 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.