Rao Anwar gets bail in Naqeebullah murder case

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday granted bail to suspended senior cop Rao Anwar in Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case.

The court also directed him to pay Rs1 million in surety bonds. Charges were framed against Anwar for killing Mehsud, a local shopkeeper and aspiring model, and three others in a staged encounter earlier this year

Rao Anwar is facing another case regarding possession of explosives and illegal weapons. The court is yet to decide his bail appeal in this case.

How Rao Anwar got exposed in fake encounter case

On January 13, Rao Anwar had claimed to have shot dead four members of the defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in an encounter near Shah Latif Town in Karachi.

Family members of one of the killed terror suspects, Naqeebullah Mehsud, claimed that he was killed in a fake encounter, triggering widespread public outrage.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar then took suo motu notice of the killing of 27-year-old man in an alleged fake encounter and sought a report from the IG Sindh within seven days.

SSP Anwar a day earlier appeared before the probe, maintaining that Naqeebullah was involved in criminal activities.

Talking briefly to media, Anwar said the killed suspect was involved in a case pertaining to the kidnapping for ransom registered back in 2014.

“Has his family reported about [Naqeeb] disappearance on January 3 at any police station?” he asked in response to the family’s claim that the deceased was abducted on aforementioned date from Sohrab Goth before an alleged ‘extrajudicial killing’.