Witnesses identify other cops 'guilty' in Naqeebullah murder case

KARACHI: Two eye witnesses on Wednesday identified accused persons during an identification parade in a case pertaining to the death of 27-year-old Naqeebullah Mehsud in a staged encounter.

Judicial Magistrate (Malir) conducted the identification parade. The suspects were lined up among dummies and the magistrate asked the witnesses – Hazrat Ali and Qasim – to identify the suspects.

Both the witnesses were picked up along with Naqeebullah on January 3 by police personnel in plain clothes, but they both were later released while Naqeeb was killed in a fake encounter.

The witnesses told the magistrate that ASI Allahyar, and other policemen were in plain clothes when they had come to pick them up.

In the 15-page report, an inquiry committee investigating Naqeebullah Mehsud’s ‘extrajudicial killing’ had declared Naqeebullah innocent and rejected the claims made by suspended SSP Malir Rao Anwar in light of the evidences that he had criminal background.

The report asserted 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 by police after getting bribes for their safe release.

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].