NBW out for Rao Anwar in Naqeeb murder case

A policeman on now-suspended District Malir SSP Rao Anwar’s encounter team has become an approver, according to an interim charge sheet that was submitted on Monday to the anti-terrorism court (ATC) hearing the Naqeeb Mehsud murder case.

The charge sheet said the approver has claimed that the Anwar-led team had killed Naseemullah, alias Naqeeb Mehsud, and three other citizens for a payment of Rs1 million.

After receiving the interim charge sheet, the ATC issued for the first time a non-bailable warrant (NBW) of arrest for Anwar, as well as three other police officers. The approver has also revealed that on the day of the fake encounter, he was summoned by Shah Latif SHO Amanullah Marwat to join the team. Among the assembled policemen the approver saw Anwar, Shoaib Shaikh, alias Shooter, and other team members.

He claimed that the team rushed four men, namely Naqeeb Mehsud, Nazar Jan, Sabir and Ishaque, to a poultry farm located in Shah Latif Town. Then, said the witness, he heard gunshots and later, when he entered the farmhouse, he noticed two bodies each in as many rooms. The charge sheet contains names of 64 witnesses in all.

The ATC issued NBWs for 15 absconding accused, including Anwar, Marwat, SITE SHO Anar Khan and Shaikh, and ordered the investigating officer to arrest them and produce them before the court on March 8.

However, DSP Qamar Ahmed, sub-inspector Yaseen, assistant sub-inspectors Allah Yar and Saparud Hussain, head constables Iqbal and Khizar Hayat, and constables Arshad Ali, Shafeeq Ahmed, Abdul Ali and Ghulam Nazuk have already been detained.

Naqeeb Mehsud was killed in a fake police encounter on January 13. Police have claimed that six of the detained cops have admitted to their involvement in the killing of Mehsud and three other men that day.

Investigation-II SP Abid Qaimkhani had presented the investigation report before the trial court that said the accused men, including Anwar, Marwat, Khan, Shah Latif SI Fida Hussain, Abbas Town ASI Ali Akbar Mallah and others were still at large.

Hazrat Ali and Muhammad Qasim were arrested along with Mehsud, but they were released three days later. The two men are being treated as prosecution witnesses and they have identified some of the policemen as accused.

On January 23 police had registered a murder case against Anwar and his team for killing Mehsud along with three other men. The police officials have maintained that all the four men were terrorists.

Mehsud’s father Muhammad Khan said in his police complaint that his son was picked up by eight to nine plain-clothes men of Anwar’s team with two others on January 3. Khan said Anwar kept his son in captivity and also switched off his mobile phone, adding that his relatives phoned him on January 17 and told him that his son was killed along with three others on January 13.