Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Following the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud in an alleged police encounter in Karachi last week, protests have continued across various cities of the country.

Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal has formed a committee to conduct an inquiry into the killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud.

Naqeebullah hailed from South Waziristan. He was killed in an alleged police encounter, headed by SSP Rao Anwaar in Usman Khaskheli Goth in Karachi last week.

On Thursday, protests demonstrations were held in almost all the big cities such as Islamabad, Queta, Zhob, Karachi, Multan, Dera Ismail Khan, Peshawar, Tank and several parts of South Waziristan against the killing of Naqeebullah known as Naqeeb Mehsud.

The demonstrators were holding banners with slogans “stop extra judicial killing, stop Pashtun genocide, justice for Naqeeb and down with Rao Anwaar”.

Representatives of political parties including JUI-F MNA Maulana Jamaluddin from South Waziristan, Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) Ajmal Wazir, Bushra Gohar and Afrasiab Khattak of Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Sheryar Afridi, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) MNA Shahabuddin Khan, and others took part in the protests.

Jamaluddin rejected the committee formed by the Sindh Home minister tasked to investigate the murder. He said that a high-level judicial committee be formed to unearth facts.

“I demand that Rao Anwaar should be sacked forthwith. A fair investigation should be carried out in order to punish the criminal police officer,” he said.

Afrasiab said that it was unfortunate that people from the tribal areas were being killed in such a way at a time when they fled terrorism.

Wazir of PML-Q also demanded a judicial inquiry into Naqeeb Mehsud killing and criticised the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for supporting the “criminal minded police officer.”

“I wonder how Naqeeb Mehsud became such a high profile terrorist? He wanted to become an actor and send his children to become army officers?” Wazir added.

MNA Shahbuddin Khan said the killing of Naqeeb Mehsud should now unite the Pashtun tribes in order to stop such gruesome killings in future.

“We have to join our hands and chalk out a strategy to get justice done for Naqeeb Mehsud,” Khan said.

Police had released a letter, claiming the deceased was affiliated with the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Some relatives and tribesmen said that the martyred man had fled South Waziristan to Karachi in 2008 because of military offensive against militants in FATA.

PTI leader Sheryar Afridi urged people from all political parties to shun their political differences and get unite to stop the killing of innocent Pashtun and punish Naqeeb killers.

“We will use every forum including assemblies to get justice for the martyred person,” he concluded.

He said that a strategy would be chalked out to build maximum pressure on the fledgling PML-N government to ensure security of Pashtuns in the country.

A protest was also held in front of Islamabad Press Club by various civil society organisations and political parties’ activists arranged a protest demonstration here on Thursday. Scores of people from various cities and universities participated in the protest. Addressing to the demonstration, ANP leader and senator Afrasiab Khattak said that the brutality of Karachi Police and Rao Anwar was behind Naqeeb’s murder.

Published in Daily Times, January 19^th 2018.