Rao would issue directives from armored vehicle, ATC informed


KARACHI: An important shooter of Rao Anwar team was remanded by local anti terrorism court into police remand for seven days in Naqeebullah Mehsud murder Case here on Friday.

Shakeel Ahmed was arrested last night during raid by Shah Latif Police Station, where he was deputed before escaping. Ahmed was close aide of Naqeebullah Mehsud.

Anwar and around 10 other policemen are accused in the extrajudicial murder of 27-year-old Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others who were killed in a fake police encounter in Karachi on January 13 on Anwar’s orders.

Later in the day, Shakeel was produced before the anti-terrorism court hearing the case and sent on physical remand until April 21.

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.

He is presently on remand with the Malir police, as is DSP Qamar Ahmed and other policemen wanted in the case.

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.

The notorious police official and his team had also farmed Naqeeb and three other deceased Mohammad Sabir, Nazar Jan and Mohammad Ishaq in explosives and illicit weapons cases after killing them and dubbed them as militants.

The former SSP was taken into custody from Supreme Court when he finally turned upon before court on after remaining into hiding for around two months.

The investigating officer SSP Abid Qaimkhani produced the suspect before ATC-II amid strict security arrangements after the trial court dismissed an application of IO to give sometime for his production before high court and directed for production of the suspect.

Subsequently, police the police brought Rao Anwar before the ATC in an armored personnel carrier (APC) and IO sought the custody of former SSP for 30 days to interrogate him on the ground that his production before the court would be a security risk.

The court handed the suspect over police on physical remand till April 21 and directed the IO to produce him again along with a progress report at the next hearing. The reporters were not allowed to witness the court proceedings. Earlier, the trial court had also issued warrant for the arrest of Rao Anwar.

DSP Qamar Shaikh, sub-inspector Mohammad Yasin, assistant-sub-inspectors Supurd Hussain and Allahyar, head constables Khizar Hayat and Mohammad Iqbal and constables Arshad Ali, Shafiq Ahmed, Abdul Ali and Ghulam Nazak were already in jail custody in the case while the then Shah Latif Town SHO Amanullah Marwat, former SHO of the SITE Superhighway police station Annar Khan, then SHO Soharb Goth Shoaib Shaikh, alias Shoaib Shooter and 11 other police officials are still at large.

The Supreme Court had also taken notice of the killing after the incident sparked outrage on social media and protests by political, religious and rights organisations while the provincial police officer had also constituted a three-member inquiry committee that found Rao Anwar and his associates involved in the case and said that prima facie the encounter in question was fake.

Subsequently, 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.

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