Daily Times

Father of Naqeebullah Mehsud filed a plea to transfer the case of extra judicial killing of his son to another court on Monday.

Naqeebullah Mehsud, a shopkeeper and aspiring model from South Waziristan, and three others were killed in a staged encounter on January 13 in Malir. Malir’s former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rao Anwar and 11 of his subordinates are facing trial before the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) over Naqeebullah’s murder.

Naqeebullah’s father. Mohammad Khan, while expressing dissatisfaction over performance of ATC court, said that from the very first day his pleas had not been heard in the case. “The judge has not taken any notice of the protocol provided to the former SSP, threats to the witnesses of the case and other pleas,” said Mohammad Khan.

Hearing of the plea against Rao Anwar’s bail was held at ATC on Monday. According to the details, Naqeebullah’s father Mohammad Khan and his lawyers boycotted the court’s proceedings and submitted an application stating that the ATC-II Special Judge Khalida Yaseen had unduly favored former SSP Rao Anwar in the case.

According to the application submitted by Mohammad Khan, the judge was not taking action against the undue favors granted to Anwar who was the only accused in the case brought to court with full protocol and without handcuffs and a prisoner’s uniform. The application also mentioned that the judge did not take any action against the investigating officer when he did not submit his reports on time.

Mohammad Khan’s lawyer also claimed that some of the key witnesses in the case had taken back their statements after receiving threats but the judge failed at taking any action over it. “We are also very disappointed as it seems that there appears to be collusion between the prosecution and the defence because despite our transfer application and despite opposition of his fellow prosecutors, one of the prosecutors went ahead with the bail application,” the lawyer later said in a statement issued to the media.

Earlier on July 10, the anti-terrorism court (ATC) had granted bail to former SSP Malir Rao Anwar in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case. The former SSP Malir was directed to pay Rs1 million in bail bonds.

The verdict was reserved by the anti-terrorism court on July 5.

On July 5, Anwar had arrived in court to attend the hearing. After arguments by the complainant’s counsel, the ATC judge had reserved decision on the bail plea and set July 10 as the decision date.

Anwar’s counsel, Amir Mansoob Qureshi had argued in court that his client was not present at the crime scene.

The judge asked the counsel, “The victims were shot from inside a room and from the back. How come they were not shot from the front during the encounter?” However, the former SSP Malir’s counsel maintained, “Anwar was neither involved in catching Naqeebullah nor in the encounter.”

Anwar had earlier been found by two separate joint investigation teams (JITs) to have been involved in the staged ‘encounter’ that led to the murder of Naqeeb and three others.

Published in Daily Times, July 17^th 2018.