Daily Times

KARACHI: The Pashtun Qaumi Grand Jirga has decided to hold a sit-in right in front of the Islamabad Press Club as this Jirga has been ended after ten days on Wednesday in Karachi which was organized by the Mehsud tribe in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth in protest against the killing of a South Waziristan youngster Naseemullah alias Naqeebullah Mehsud in a fake encounter.

The Jirga was held following the extrajudicial killing of a Naqeebullah in an alleged fake encounter occurred on January 13 in Karachi’s Shah Latif area by a police party of former district Malir SSP Rao Anwar that was continued for at least ten consecutive days to protest the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah.

However, Pashtun Jirga organisers announced end to their protest camp at Sohrab Goth on Wednesday. Addressing the Jirga participants, the organizers said that they trusted the investigation team and they would stage sit-in in front of the Bilawal House Karachi, if their demands were not accepted. They demanded early arrest of former SSP Malir Rao Anwar and his team.

“Basically, we are not ending our protest but we are actually moving our place of protest,” said Noor Rehman, the cousin of Naqeebullah Mehsud. “Now we are going to Islamabad where we will hold a ‘big’ sit-in outside the Islamabad Press Club becouse we have came to know that the Rao Anwar present in Islamabad.”

He said that not only the Pashtuns belonging to the Mehsud tribe but the Pashtuns from all tribes are reaching Islamabad by foot and on vehicles to stage a sit-in in Islamabad where over 50 thousand Pashtuns from Dir, Wana, Swat, Charsada, Tang, Dera Ismail Khan, Dara Adam Khel and Peshawar are expected to be reach on Islamabad today (Thursday) to be a part of the sit-in against the Naqeebullah’s killing.

“Sindh IGP Allah Dino Khowaja had assured us of taken the case to a logical end. Therefore, we have decided to give the investigation team some time,” said Jirga chairperson and a former IG Police Rehmatullah Mehsud.

During the ten days of Jirga, leaders of various political parties including Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamaat-e-Islami, Awami National Party and Pakistan Peoples Party visited the Jirga camp to express solidarity with the bereaved family. Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq also visited the Jirga camp to express solidarity with the family of Naqeebullah and demanded that SSP Anwar and his team should be deal strictly according to the law.

SSP Rao Anwar and his police party members allegedly responsible for the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah remained on run and the Sindh police remained fail to arrest them despite multiple special teams of the Sindh police have been dispatched to other parts of the country over SSP Anwar’s and his team members possible presence here in hiding.

SSP Anwar and his team members are remained in hiding since the inquiry committee formed by IGP Sindh following the claims by the Naqeebullah’s family about his killing in a fake encounter declared it a coordinated encounter.

Family of Muhammad Ishaq, the other suspected militant killed along with Naseemullah alias Naqeebullah Mehsud in a controversial police shootout in Shah Latif Town on January 13, has already submitted an application to the police on Tuesday for registration a murder case against former District Malir SSP Rao Anwar and his team for killing their loved one in a fake encounter.

Published in Daily Times, February 1^st 2018.