Raids on to arrest Rao Anwar, team

KARACHI: The police have been carrying out raids to arrest former Malir SSP Rao Anwar and seven other policemen nominated in the FIR of Naqeebullah Mehsud’s extrajudicial killing.

This was stated by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) East Sultan Khawaja on Wednesday while talking to the media. He said that police had also conducted overnight raids in Karachi to make an arrest but no major breakthrough could be achieved as the suspended cops had turned off their mobile phones and went underground.

On the occasion, he shared the identity of another killed alongside Naqeebullah as Nazar Jan, adding, the deceased was picked from Sohrab Goth on May 18, 2017. A large number of people including the members of the family and relatives of killed men were staging protests in Karachi’s outlying Sohrab Goth area. The protesters had been calling a judicial inquiry into the extrajudicial killings.

Earlier on Tuesday, the police registered an FIR in extrajudicial murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud against under-fire SSP Rao Anwar and seven other policemen at the Sachal Police Station in Karachi. The case had been registered on the complaint of Muhammad Khan Mehsud, Naqeebullah’s father, incorporating terrorism, kidnapping and murder charges. According to the FIR, Naqeebullah, alongside two other men named Qasim and Hazrat Ali, was picked by policemen in plainclothes on January 3 at the behest of Rao Anwar from Abul Hasan Ispahani Road at around 3:00pm.

The other two men were released after three days on January 6 but Naqeebullah’s whereabouts remained unknown until the news of his killing in a ‘fake’ police encounter started making rounds on social media, the FIR added.

It has been learnt that the two men had now become eye-witnesses in the case and documented their statements before the inquiry committee. Both witnesses had accused police personnel of taking bribe for their safe release. On Tuesday, Additional Inspector General (AIG) of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Dr Sanaullah Abbasi, who heads the inquiry committee probing the killing, announced that Naqeebullah was innocent and his death was an extrajudicial killing.

Addressing the Mehsud tribal jirga (gathering) at Sohrab Goth, Abbasi assured the tribesmen that the case would be taken to its logical conclusion. Meanwhile, the officers of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headed by its Director General Bashir Memon called on Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal here on Wednesday.

The minister lauded the performance of the FIA Immigration Wing and awarded them appreciation certificates on foiling suspended Senior Superintendent of Police Malir Rao Anwar’s attempt to flee from the country, an interior ministry press release said. He appreciated the alertness, dedication and honesty of the FIA officers and called upon all the civil servants to perform their duties with full devotions and according to the law.