Naqeebullah killed in fake police encounter: Inquiry report

KARACHI: The inquiry committee investigating Naqeebullah Mehsud’s ‘extrajudicial’ killing on Friday submitted its initial report to the Supreme Court, ahead of the suo motu hearing at its Karachi Registry tomorrow.

In the 15-page report, the committee has declared Naqeebullah innocent and rejected the claims made by suspended SSP Malir Rao Anwar in light of the evidences.

The report asserts that Naqeebullah alongside two other men named Qasim and Hazrat Ali were picked up by policemen in plain clothes on January 3.

The other two men were set free after three days on January 6 after giving bribes to the officers on demand for their safe release. The men have now become eye-witnesses in the case and documented their statements before the inquiry committee, the probing committee stated in its report.

Throwing light on the encounter site, the committee in its report has said that as many as 26 bullet casings of sub-machine guns have been recovered from the site and no evidence has been found of firing from the victims [alleged terrorists].

Moreover, it says that police have been conducting raids to arrest the police officers involved in the incident but no major breakthrough could be achieved as the suspended cops have turned off their mobile phones and went in hiding.

745 encounters in Malir district alone

The report also shared statistical details of encounters took place during tenure of suspended SSP Malir Rao Anwar from July 25, 2011 to January 19, 2018.

According to the report, a total number of 745 ‘registered’ encounters took place in the district during tenure of the beleaguered cop and as many as 444 accused were killed in the encounters, besides 891 suspects were arrested.

Investigating officers hold grudge against me: Rao Anwar

Standing firm against all charges, Rao Anwar on Thursday demanded formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising members of intelligence agencies to probe the ‘extrajudicial’ killing of 27-year-old Naqeebullah.

In a statement issued to media, the beleaguered cop hasdonce again termed charges again him as ‘baseless’. He said all the allegations have been levelled by officers holding a personal grudge against him.

The suspended SSP dispelled reports of going into hiding in his recent statement, as what he said, going somewhere to meet family members doesn’t violate any law.

He accused the investigating officers of misleading the family of Naqeebullah, while stating that he would soon appear before the courts.

Expressing no confidence in investing committee, Anwar said that he would soon disclose concrete evidences against the inquiry committee head AIG Sanaullah Abbasi and other Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) officials, adding, their own hands are not clean.

Who was Naqeebullah Mehsud?

Naseemullah Mehsud, better known as Naqeebullah, was a 27-year-old from South Waziristan. He was recently killed in an alleged police encounter in Karachi.

Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Malir Rao Anwar was heading the police raiding team, which claimed to kill three terrorists in Karachi’s Shah Latif Town.

The SSP Malir had initially claimed to have sufficient evidences against the slain youth for his involvement in terror activists but family members, relatives and friends rejected the claims and remembered him as a person who loved to take care of himself and wanted to become a model.

ARY News learnt that the handsome and well-dressed young man was fond of taking selfies and pictures and he wished to see his son as a Pakistan Army officer.