Indictment of seven cops again deferred in Naqeebullah murder case

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) has once again deferred until January 9 the indictment of seven police officers in the Naqeebullah murder case.

Former Shah Latif Town SHO Amanullah Marwat, along with former Sohrab Goth SHO Shoaib Shaikh and five other policemen — Gada Hussain, Syed Sadaqat Hussain, Mohsin Abbas, Raja Shamim Mukhtar and Riaz Ahmed — had surrendered before the court in May last year after absconding for more than five years.

They turned up around five months after the court exonerated former Malir SSP Rao Anwar, who was the prime suspect, and 17 others from the charges of extrajudicial murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud, a young aspiring fashion model hailing from South Waziristan, and three others in an alleged staged encounter at an abandoned farmhouse on the outskirts of Karachi in January 2018.

As the case came up for hearing before the ATC-XVI judge, Marwat, Gada, Sadaqat, Abbas, Mukhtar and Riaz were produced from the jail, while Shaikh turned up on bail.

The judge deferred the indictment of the accused due to the absence of a defence counsel. He adjourned the hearing until Jan 9 with a direction to the investigation officer, DSP Balaghat, to appear on the next date. The six accused, who are in jail custody, were arrested on June 15.