Out (in the open?)

On Wednesday, former SSP Rao Anwar made a dramatic appearance in front of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, almost two months after he was seen trying to flee the country from the Islamabad airport after the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud. For years, this rogue cop had been literally allowed to get away with murder. The difference this time was that the victims, current and potential, were no longer willing to tolerate such behaviour. It is fair to speculate that Anwar had no intention of emerging from wherever he had hidden had it not been for the fact that the Supreme Court had his NIC cancelled and frozen his bank accounts. Bizarrely shrouded in a protective mask, Anwar asked the court for protective bail – a request that was rightly denied. He is now in police custody and a new Joint Investigation Team has been formed to look into his case.

Anwar is implicated in more than 400 ‘encounters’ and he must face justice for all these cases. But, while prosecuting him is the priority, there is much still to be learned about how Anwar has evaded capture since Mehsud’s killing on January 13. For instance, we do not know where he was all this time, whether he showed up of his own accord at the Supreme Court or if he was pressurised into doing so. If he was indeed on the loose for all this time, who may have had reason to protect him? It defies belief that Anwar has spent his entire career as a police officer cultivating a well-deserved reputation as an encounter specialist without having friends in high places. To root out lawlessness among law-enforcement officials will require more than just the punishment of Rao Anwar. There also needs to be an investigation of the investigation into Rao Anwar. How could one wanted man be beyond the grasp of the state and its surveillance machinery for so long? It is unbelievable that Anwar was even calling into talk shows and yet could not be traced. Is this because we lack the capability or did we just not have the will? Any trial Rao Anwar faces for the killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud will have to answer all these questions for us to be assured that he and others like him no longer enjoy immunity for their actions.