Naimat Khan
KARACHI: A joint Investigation Team setup by the apex court has found suspended police officer, Rao Anwar, responsible for killing Naqeeb Mehsud and three others in a fake encounter.
A senior police official confided with The Frontier Post that Rao has been found guilty of carrying out encounter, which has turned out to be fake one.
Naqeeb Mehsud, an aspiring model from Waziristan, who worked in Karachi as factory worker, was killed a fake encounter by Rao Anwar on January 13 this year. Rao told reporters that a police team headed by him has killed four terrorists, including Naqeeb Mehsud, who are associated with Al Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi outfits.
According to reports the JIT had found that Rao Anwar and his accomplices disposed of the evidence of the encounter.
JIT further states that according to DNA report all four people were killed separately and Anwar was unable to present any evidence confirming his non-involvement in the extrajudicial killing.
Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi sent Rao Anwar, the police official who had claimed to kill Naqeeb Mehsud in encounter, was sent to central prison of the city on judicial remand till May 2 here on last Saturday.
Anwar was produced before the court amid tightened security measures but like not handcuffed. The central accused in Naqeeb murder case was presented along eleven other policemen, including his close aide Shakeel Feroz.
Anwar, along with other suspects, has also been booked for planting false evidence — pistols and hand grenades — on Mehsud and three others after killing them in the shootout, and later registering a false case against the deceased under the Sindh Arms Act for illegal possession of arms and explosives.
On the outset of proceedings, investigation officer Dr Rizwan Ahmed submitted that JIT has yet to finalize its final findings and recommendation so a time of one week may be granted. Amir Mansoob, Lawyer of Rao Anwar, said that since his client was wrongly implicated he should be free.
The judge while hearing arguments of both the side remanded Rao Anwar and Shakeel Feroz to jail till may 2 whereas it also extended judicial remand of ten others for ten days. The court was adjourned till May 2, on which the accused will be produced.
When asked the suspended SSP if Naqeebullah was a terrorist, Anwar said he would respond to the question after the final charge sheet is filed in the court.
Strict security arrangements were made, while an additional contingent of police was deployed around the anti-terrorism court before the appearance of Anwar.
Naqeebullah was killed in a fake encounter reportedly on January 13 in Karachi. Anwar declared Naqeebullah a terrorist after news of the fake encounter aired on the television on January 18. A case on the incident was filed on January 19, while Anwar was suspended from duty the next day.
The Supreme Court ordered Anwar to appear on January 27, but the suspended SSP remained on the run for at least two months.
Meanwhile, a section of media claimed a day earlier that the JIT formed on the Supreme Court’s directives had held Anwar and three others responsible for the killing of Mehsud in a fake encounter.
Rao Anwar’s close aide and his shooter, Shakeel Ahmed, who was arrested earlier this month during raid by Shah Latif Police Station, told Rao would issue directives from the armored vehicle.
Shakeel has reportedly claimed that Anwar was sitting inside an armored vehicle giving instructions during the ‘encounter’.
Police investigators have claimed that Shakeel was part of the team which killed Mehsud and in fact pulled the trigger.
Anwar, after absconding in the case since late January, was arrested on the Supreme Court’s orders in March after he finally appeared in court.
Rao Anwar, the notorious staged encounter specialist who had admitted to have killed the aspiring model Naqeeb Mehsud, has now expressed his sheer ignorance of the incident during interrogation, The Frontier Post reported last month.
Rao had been claiming the coldblooded murder of Mehsud and three others, calling them terrorists, but has now changed his statement before the JIT, a senior police official told this newspaper.
“Rao Anwar has told that he was not present altogether when the encounter occurred,” the official told.
Anwar was remanded by An Anti-terrorism Court in Karachi into 30-day physical police remand in Naqeeb Ullah Mehsud murder case here a day earlier.
Rao Anwar along with his around 24 of his subordinates has been booked for allegedly abducting Naseemullah – commonly known as Naqeebullah Mehsud for ransom and killing him along with three others over non-payment of ransom in a staged encounter on Jan 13 in a Shah Latif Town locality.
A case against Rao Anwar and his associates was registered under sections 302 (punishment for premeditated murder), 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 344 (wrongful confinement for ten or more days), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act, 1997 on a complaint of the deceased’s father, Mohammad Khan, at the Sachal police station. Later, Sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender), 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform) 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) and 365-A (kidnapping to extort property, etc.) of PPC were also incorporated in the case.
