Fresh NBWs out for Rao Anwar, other cops

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) issued new non-bailable arrest warrants on Thursday against former Malir senior superintendent of police Rao Anwar and 14 other absconding cops involved in the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsood in a fake encounter.

Mehsood, a 27-seven-year-old native of Waziristan, was killed along with three other men in the staged police shootout on January 13 this year. The court directed the investigation officer (IO) to submit a report at the next hearing on March 22.

An interim charge sheet presented to the court on Monday said one of the cops led by Anwar had become an approver. The charge sheet said the approver had claimed that Anwar’s team had the four citizens against a payment of one million rupees.

After receiving the interim charge sheet, the court had issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the accused cops. The approver disclosed that on the day of the fake encounter, he was phoned and summoned by Station House Officer (SHO) Amanullah Marwat of the Shah Latif police station to join the team. He said that when he visited Amanullah, he saw that police officer Shoaib Shaikh alias Shooter and Rao Anwar along with his other team members were present at the scene.

He added that the team rushed four men -- Naqeebullah Mehsood, Nazar Jan, Sabir and Ishaque -- to a poultry farm located in Shah Latif Town. Then, the witness said, he heard the sound of firing.

Later, as the witness entered the farm he noticed dead bodies lying in two rooms of the poultry farm (two in one room each). The charge sheet has named 64 people as witnesses. Eleven accused, including DSP Qamar Ahmed, Sub Inspector Yaseen, Assistant Sub inspector (ASI) Allah Yar, ASI Saparud Hussain, Head Constable Iqbal and constables Khizar Hayyat and Arshad Ali, are in detention, while 15 others, including Rao Anwar, are still at large.

Twenty-year-old Naseemullah Mehsood known as Naqeebullah Mehsood was killed in a fake police encounter took place on January 13 this year. The police claimed that six detained cops had admitted to murdering Mehsood and three other men.

In his investigation report, Zone-II SP Investigation Abid Qaimkhani had said ex-SSP Anwar’s team was also involved in kidnapping two other men, Qasim and Hazrat Ali, who were later allowed to go home. The two have been recorded their statements before a judicial magistrate, stating that they were arrested along with Mehsood but were released, and later they came to know that Mehsood had been killed in a fake encounter.