KARACHI – An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday granted bail to former senior police officer Rao Anwar in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case.
The court has approved the bail of the ex-senior superintendent of police Malir against Rs1 million surety bonds.
Anwar and 11 other police officials are facing trial for allegedly killing Mehsud, a shopkeeper and aspiring model from South Waziristan, and three others in a staged encounter on January 13.
Another case has been registered against the former SSP for possessing illegal weapons and explosives. He has not been granted bail in that case yet.
On July 5, the ATC had reserved its verdict on the bail plea.
During the July 4 hearing of the case, Amir Mansoob Qureshi, counsel for former police officer, had argued that his client was not present at the crime scene when the youth was gunned down.
POLICE BLAME ANWAR FOR KILLING MEHSUD
In a charge sheet report submitted to the ATC, Sindh Police have finally declared former SSP as the main culprit in the Naqeebullah Mehsud’s encounter case, that had garnered the attention of top court as well.
District Central SSP, Dr Rizwan Ahmad Khan, has submitted a supplementary charge-sheet on the basis of Joint Investigation Team (JIT)’s report, which holds Rao Anwar responsible for the encounter.
According to the ‘damaging’ charge-sheet, which has been formulated after taking statements of witnesses -including Muhammad Qasim and Hazrat Ali – and evidence, Rao Anwar was leading the team, which was involved in abducting, declaring Naqeebullah, Muhammad Ishaq, Muhammad Sabir and Nazar Jan as terrorists and later killing them in the fake encounter.
It is also stated that during interrogation, Anwar deliberately delayed the matter and withheld the facts and could not produce any evidence to establish his innocence, however, it has been proven that he was present at the crime scene, Express Tribune reported.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/absconding-rao-anwar-appears-before-supreme-court-in-naqeebullah-case/
The investigators also unearthed Rao’s contact with police constables Jahangir Khanzada and Shakil Feroz through DSP Qamar and SHO Amanullah Marwat. It was also found that former DSP Qamar Ahmad compromised the evidence at the crime scene and acted as a facilitator to the team involved in the encounter.
The police investigation says that the constable Shakil Feroz replaced mobile SIMs after the incident, however, the police have admitted that the weapons used in the encounter have yet to be seized.
The investigations were conducted by the JIT headed by Sindh AIG Aftab Pathan, which was devised on the directives of Supreme Court and it held 16 meetings at different places to probe the high-profile case.
It is to be noted that Rao Anwar was arrested from the premises of the Supreme Court after he surrnder to the court after long hide and seek.
