Pashtun activists to launch protest

Showing concerns over the grant of bail to suspended police officer Rao Anwar in the murder case of Naqeebullah Mehsud, Pashtun social activists said on Tuesday that they would chalk out their future strategy to launch a protest.

Anwar, who was accused of killing Mehsud along with other three men in a fake police shootout on January 13, claimed that the slain Pashutn model was an active member of the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. However, later it was uncovered that those killed during the fake police operation were not terrorists but ordinary citizens picked up from various areas in Karachi.

In Karachi, a Jirga (committee) was formed to seek justice for Mehsud, a 27-year-old aspiring fashion model, and Karachi’s other Pashtun residents who have been either killed in fake encounters with police or gone “missing” after being picked up by law enforcement agencies.

Members of the committee have shown their dissatisfaction over the court’s decision. Mehmood Mehsud, a committee member, said that the committee’s members would sit together today to announce their next plan of action against the bail of Anwar. “We are going to the Sindh High Court in another similar case today and after it we will decide our plan after consultation with all elders and members,” he told The News.