No Credit
An Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi on Monday acquitted Rao Anwar, the former SSP of Malir, and 17 others in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case.
In his ruling the court’s judge said the prosecution had failed to submit sufficient evidence against Anwar and other accused persons to prove their guilt. The detailed verdict stressed that due to the prosecution’s failure to establish guilty, there was reasonable doubt about the guilt of the accused, which merited their acquittal. It further noted that the prosecution had failed to prove that the victims were kidnapped and murdered in a fake encounter. “Geo-fencing reports and call records failed to prove the presence of Rao Anwar and others at the place of the fake shoot-out,” the judge added.
The long-pending case—Mehsud and three others were murdered on Jan. 13, 2018 in a police encounter—had been a source of widespread condemnation and protests, with Anwar in particular being singled out for his alleged involvement in multiple “fake” encounters across Karachi.
Speaking to private broadcaster Geo News after his acquittal, Anwar thanked God and said “fake allegations” against his conduct had been proven wrong. He claimed he would soon give an interview and provide a detailed response to all accusations against him, reiterating an earlier claim that the person slain in the encounter had been “wanted militant” Naseemullah and not Naqeebullah.
Mehsud’s family, meanwhile, has vowed to appeal the verdict, with lawyer Jibran Nasir claiming that several of the prosecution’s witnesses had recanted their statements and important documentary proof had gone missing.
Case history
After the murder in 2018 had triggered mass protests, then-chief justice Saqib Nisar had taken suo motu and twice offered Anwar to surrender. The former SPP, after being an absconder for around three months, had finally surrendered before the Supreme Court in March 2018.
Sindh police then kept him at a house in Malir Cantonment, which was later declared a sub-jail.
Anwar and 17 of his subordinates were indicted in March 2019 for allegedly killing four men on the outskirts of Karachi. At the time, Anwar had alleged that the slain Naqeebullah was a militant of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, despite the militant group denying any linkages to him. After three years, in November 2022, Anwar had recorded his statement, alleging—without any details of specific—that he had been framed in the case due to a “departmental rivalry.” He had further claimed he had not been present at the crime scene when the murder occurred.