The officer ‘kidnapped’ by another officer

According to the family, Mehrab Khoso was abducted by Anwar for taking action against encroachments in Scheme 33 area

KARACHI: One week on, the police have neither been able to recover sub-inspector Mehrab Khoso allegedly kidnapped by Malir SSP Rao Anwar and his team from Super Highway nor have they registered a case.

SI Mehrab was posted as SHO of Anti-Encroachment Force in Malir district. According to the family of Mehrab, he was abducted by Anwar for taking action against encroachments on government land in Scheme 33 area.

He was kidnapped when was travelling along with his friends to Karachi from Sukkur on March 28.



On March 31, the Malir judge, Khalid Hussain Shahani, had ordered the SHO of Gadap police station, Khan Nawaz, to lodge an FIR if a cognisable offence is made.

SHO Nawaz told The Express Tribune that no one from the family approached him for registering the FIR, which is why he was unable to make efforts to trace the whereabouts of Mehrab if he had been kidnapped.

On the other hand, Amir Khosa, Mehrab's brother, refuted Nawaz's claim, saying that he was approached many times but did not lodge the FIR.



According to the abductee's father, Niaz Khoso, a retired senior police official, SSP Anwar is behind his son's kidnapping. "My son was taking action against the encroachments on government plots and that is why he picked him up."

Niaz has also filed a complaint with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the Malir SSP, accusing him of being involved in over Rs85-billion money laundering and other crimes such as land grabbing.

In the application with the top anti-graft body filed on February 15, the retired police officer maintained that SSP Anwar travelled 90 times to Dubai and London from Karachi during 2012 and 2017 for the purpose of money laundering.



The NAB has yet to start an inquiry on the application submitted by Niaz. NAB spokesperson Rizwan Soomro said the body had received the application but further proceedings on it were not initiated. The evidences are being scrutinised first, he added.

SSP Anwar refuted the allegations on him, saying that he is being maligned because he did not listen to the retired police officer asking favours to save his son from prosecution in a case registered against him for allegedly vandalising the property of a man in the name of an operation.

Mehrab is charge-sheeted in case No 132/2017 registered under Sections 365, 342, 427, 506 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code as an absconder, said Anwar, asserting that the kidnapping was a drama to evade arrest.