Rao Anwar submits Naqeeb’s criminal record to probe team

KARACHI: As protests against the extrajudicial killing of Naqeeb Mehsud continued across the city on Friday, Malir SSP Rao Anwar, the man who led the ‘encounter’ in which Naqeeb was killed, appeared before a team assigned to investigate the matter, and submitted what he claimed was the criminal record of the deceased.

Demonstrations against the Mehsud tribesman’s murder were held across the city, with the largest in Sohrab Goth where angry protesters blocked Super Highway and burnt tyres demanding the SSP’s removal. The situation soon turned violent as area police initiated a crackdown against the protesters, resorting to teargas shelling and aerial firing in a bid to disperse the crowd. As per Geo News, the law enforcers forceful tactics resulted in injuries to at least two unarmed protesters. Inspector General of Police (IGP) AD Khowaja had earlier formed a three-member team headed by Counter-Terrorism Department Additional Inspector General of Police (Addli IGP) Dr Sanaullah Abbasi and comprising South-Zone DIGP Azad Khan and East DIGP Sultan Ali Khowaja to investigate the death of Naqeeb, a Mehsud tribesman from Waziristan, who police claimed was a terrorist and killed in a shootout in Shah Latif Town on January 13 along with three other suspects. The relatives of Naqeeb, whose real name is Naseemullah, had said that he was picked up on January 3 by officials in civvies from Gul Sher Agha Hotel in Sohrab Goth and then murdered 10 days later in an alleged police encounter by SSP Anwar and his men.

As per details, SSP Anwar has submitted to the probe team that Naseem was a former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander for Makeen in South Waziristan and that he was involved in martyring Pakistan Army’s junior commissioned officer Muhammad Alam in 2007.

Anwar also claimed that Naqeeb was involved in the Dera Ismail Khan jailbreak in 2013 and that he had killed his cousin Aijaz Mehsud in 2009 because he suspected him of spying for the army.