Sindh IGP to collect details about 250 killings in encounters

ISLAMABAD: The investigation committee constituted by the Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) has decided to collect details about killing of 250 people in 60 police encounters carried out in the last three years under the supervision of suspended Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Malir Rao Anwar that may result in emergence of more cases of extra-judicial killing involving innocent citizens of Pakistan, the sources told The News here on Sunday.

The sources said headed by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Additional IG Sanaullah Abbasi, the inquiry committee comprising DIG Sultan Khawaja and DIG Azad Khan would collect details from the relevant police stations and record statements from the policemen who are supposed to be privy to the police encounters carried out by suspended SSP Malir Rao Anwar during the last three years.

“The committee members will also provide a chance to heirs of the persons killed during the police encounters to give their viewpoint and also evidences against extra-judicial killing by Rao Anwar. Surprisingly, he never ever sustained even minor injuries during the police encounters headed by him,” the sources said.

The inquiry committee has been entrusted with the task to ascertain the facts related to the reported encounter in the jurisdiction of the police station at Shah Latif Town, district Malir resulting in death of ‘Naseemullah alias Naqeeb Mehsud’.

Alamgir Mehsud, cousin of Naqeebullah Mehsud, has alleged that some men in plainclothes came and abducted Naqeebullah from a restaurant in Karachi on January 3 and then on January 16 they were told that he had been killed during a police encounter.   The Police Order of 2002 says that no one can stay in one post more than three years but suspended SSP Rao Anwar was in Malir for nine years.

Rao Anwar joined the police service as Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) in 1982. He took part in the Karachi operation against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in 1992. Later, he was transferred to Quetta during the Jam Sadiq-led Sindh government. In 2007, he was posted back to Karachi and became Town Police Officer in Keamari. He was promoted a year later and became the TPO Malir. He is a Grade-18 officer but serving in Grade-19 due to the support of high-ups of the province.

When then Sindh chief minister suspended him on April 30,2015 over a press conference in which he accused MQM of getting funds from Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) held a rally in Karachi and demanded his early reinstatement to his post.  

The sources said the inquiry committee would also probe into the bank accounts of Rao Anwar because there are rumors in the police department that the police officials kill innocent people in fake encounters in return of money worth millions of rupees. They also claimed that some political and business circles are quite active to save the skin of Rao Anwar who is believed to have strong connections with influential quarters in the province.