Ex-SHO arrested after bail dismissed in PPP activist’s murder case

The former SHO of the Peerabad police station and two other accused were arrested after an anti-terrorism court revoked their interim pre-arrest bail in a case pertaining to the killing of a PPP activist in a ‘fake’ encounter.

Ex-SHO Peerabad Anzar Alam, Inspector Basheer Khan, Head Constable Ghulam Yaseen and Constable Umair Khan, as well as private accused — Akram Khan Niazi, Rehtas Khan Niazi and Attar Khan — have been charged with the murder of Nadir Magsi within the jurisdiction of the Peerabad police station in September 2022.

The ATC-XV judge dismissed applications filed by Anzar Alam, Rehtas Khan and Attar Khan seeking confirmation of their interim pre-arrest bail. Subsequently, the accused were taken into custody and sent to prison.

“At present, there is sufficient evidence to involve the said accused with the commission of murder of deceased Nadir Magsi,” the judge observed. He noted that an inquiry committee constituted by the additional inspector general of the police clearly disclosed the involvement of ex-SHO Anzar Alam, Ghulam Yaseen and Umair, as well as Attar Khan Niazi in the alleged offence by showing them as the real culprits.

According to the prosecution, on September 2, 2022, the police claimed to have killed Nadir Magsi in an “encounter” in the Paracha Graveyard, dubbing him a drug peddler. However, his relatives staged a protest in the area against his killing, after which a murder case was lodged against SI Anzar Alam, his police party and private accused on the complaint of the deceased’s mother. The complainant stated that some people in police uniform as well as in civil dresses had illegally taken her son away from home and later murdered him.

State prosecutor Ghulam Abbas Dalwani contended that the witnesses in their statements before police and a magistrate fully implicated the accused person in the commissioning of the crime. Therefore, he said, the accused were not entitled to any concession of bail, requesting the judge to dismiss their bail pleas.

The complainant’s lawyer Syed Asadullah Shah Rashidi stated that Nadir Magsi was actively pursuing a case of the murder of his nephew lodged against Attar Khan and his son. Accused Rehtas and Attar were pressurizing him to enter a compromise with them and upon his refusal to do so, they had him killed in a fake encounter, he said.

Advocate Amir Mansoob, who represented the ex-SHO, argued that his client was not present at the place of the incident, nor was he involved in the abduction or the murder of the deceased, adding that he received a message on wireless that the incident had taken place at the Paracha Graveyard, after which he along with Constable Umair visited the spot.

An FIR has been lodged under sections 302 (murder), 109 (punishment for abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) at the Peerabad police station.