KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday gave more time to the chief secretary, home secretary, and the inspector general of provincial police to respond to a petition seeking a probe into the death of over 250 people in what the police had held were encounters, led by suspended superintendent of police Rao Anwar. Anwar, who is accused of extra judicially killing North Waziristan youngster Naqeebullah Mehsud, remains in hiding and has not even appeared before the Supreme Court of Pakistan despite a protective bail granted to him by the court. When a division bench of the SHC took up Advocate Muzamil Mumtaz Meo Rajput,’s petition seeking a complete investigation into all of the various encounters attributed to Anwar, the state counsel sought time to submit comments on behalf of the official respondents. On Tuesday, the counsel also argued that the petition was not maintainable and thus should be dismissed. The court, however, directed the petitioner to satisfy it with regards to the maintainability of the petition on next hearing on March 30. In the petition, Rao Anwar has been accused of killing dozens of innocent people in fake encounters. On the fact that hardly a few complaints had since surfaced against Anwar, the petition maintained that legal heirs of those killed didn’t seek any action against out of fear of persecution at the hand of the police. Those who dared approach higher authorities for legal action against the police officer were not listened to, it stated. The petitioner asked why Anwar was never transferred from Malir district despite, serious allegations levelled against him. In the past, SSP Anwar was suspended several times over allegations of fake encounters, but he always got reinstated. The petitioner’s counsel has requested the court to order an inquiry into the killing of more than 250 innocent people in alleged fake police encounters. Meanwhile, Karachi police continued interrogations in connection with Anwar’s whereabouts on Tuesday. A team headed by Additional IG Sindh Aftab Pathan summoned former Malir Investigations SP Malik Altaf Sarwar and DSP Qamar Ahmed for questioning. DSP Qamar was detained for his failure to come up with satisfactory responses. However, the SP was later allowed to leave, on the condition that he would provide details of each and every police encounter during Anwar’s tenure. SP Sarwar and DSP Qamar are considered closed to Anwar. Police have also detained a constable, identified just as Guddu. Investigators had arrested at least nine cops in the case so far, increasing the number of arrests to 11. Published in Daily Times, February 21st 2018.