Seven cops indicted for killing Naqeebullah in staged encounter

An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday indicted seven police officers on charges of killing four men, including aspiring model Naseemullah alias Naqeebullah Mehsud, in a staged encounter in January, 2018.

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 and 17 others from the charges of extrajudicial murders of Naqeebullah Mehsud, a young aspiring fashion model hailing from South Waziristan, and three others in a staged encounter at an abandoned farmhouse on the outskirts of Karachi in January 2018.

On Tuesday, the ATC-XVI judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, read out charges against Amanullah, Gada, Sadaqat, Riaz, Shamim, and Mohsin, who were produced from prison, and Shoaib, who turned up on bail.

The seven accused, along with other accomplices, were charged with abducting three men, including Naqeebullah, from Gulsher Agha Hotel on Abul Hassan Ispahani Road on January 4, 2018, demanding Rs1 million ransom from the aspiring model and keeping him in wrongful confinement “at the behest of (acquitted) accused ex-SSP [Rao] Anwar Ahmed Khan”.

“I further charge you that on 13th January, 2018 in between 03:00 to 03:20 pm inside a house near abandoned poultry farm situated in Usman Khashkheli Goth near Sheedi Khan Goth you, accused Amanullah Marwat, Gada Hussain, Mohsin Abbas, Sadaqat Hussain, Raja Shamim Mukhtar, Rana Riaz and Shaikh Muhammad Shoaib alias Shoaib Shooter in connivance with (acquitted accused) Muhammad Anar, Faisal Mehmood, Shakeel Feroze, Khair Muhammad and Qamar Ahmed Shaikh with abetment of you (acquitted accused) Anwar Ahmed Khan committed Qatl-e-Amd of Naseemullah alias Naqeebullah, Muhammad Ishaque, Nazar Jan and Muhammad Sabir by causing them firearm injuries in a fake encounter thereby created sense of fear and insecurity in the society,” said the judge.

The accused were further charged with foisting recoveries of three TT pistols, one rifle and a piece of exploded hand grenade on the victims, as well as registering five false cases against them at the Shah Latif Town police stations “in order to justify the fake encounter”.

The judge also charged the accused with intentionally absconding and avoiding arrest or appearance before court proceedings and concealing themselves, thereby hindering the course of justice.

All of them pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the charges. The judge subsequently ordered issuance of summons of prosecution witnesses to record their testimony, on the next

date of the hearing set for January 22.