Inquiry ordered into Star Gate firing incident

District Malir SSP Rao Anwar goes on sudden leave

KARACHI: Sindh Inspector-General of Police Allah Dino Khawaja has appointed the Karachi police chief as the inquiry officer to investigate the firing incident that took place at Star Gate, on Sharae Faisal, during a protest on Saturday, November 25, by religious groups.

Coincidentally, District Malir SSP Rao Anwar has decided to go on two-week leave at the same time, purportedly to save himself from facing the inquiry.

IG Khawaja has appointed Karachi police chief Mushtaq Maher as the inquiry officer after taking notice of the firing incident that took place at Star Gate on November 25 that left a police SHO and 32 civilians injured. The protest was held by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan at 40 different locations in Karachi and was part of widespread protests and sit-ins across the country as a result of a police crackdown against the main protest in Islamabad’s Faizabad.

During the protest at Star Gate, which, along with University Road and Nursery area, was the most affected area in the city, protesters became violent and began pelting law enforcers with stones. This resulted in law enforcers firing teargas at the protesters. They also began aerial firing and then baton charged the group.



In the ensuing clash, Memon Goth SHO Gulzar Khan Tunio and constable Sabir were injured. A number of protesters were also injured, many claiming that the police opened fire at them.

According to the notification issued on Thursday, Maher has 11 days to submit the inquiry report, which IG Khawaja has summoned by December 11.

SSP Anwar, however, a key figure in the action who was on the front lines that fateful Saturday, fled on 14-day leave. In his absence, Landhi SP Muhammad Arif Islam will be in charge of District Malir.

The IG has also ordered an inquiry to ascertain the reason behind SSP Anwar’s sudden request for leave. Karachi’s additional IG will personally lead the inquiry against SSP Anwar.

The District Malir police head has had a tumultuous history with the police chief. Earlier IG Khawaja was sent on forced leave and one of the reasons for his abrupt departure at the hands of the Sindh government was a disagreement over the appointment of Anwar as the District Malir SSP.



SSP Anwar was facing five serious criminal allegations against him, including land grabbing, but in December 2016 the Sindh High Court gave him a clean chit. This development came a month after he was reinstated as the district’s top cop after being suspended in September, 2016 for arrested Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan MPA and Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izharul Hasan.

An official inquiry was ordered against SSP Anwar by the police chief, who also ensured that Anwar was suspended. Though the inquiry team, led by DIG Azad Khan, never submitted its report, the government reinstated SSP Anwar on November 19, reportedly on the directives of Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari. “A phone call made the difference. Zardari called the chief minister and asked him to reinstate Rao Anwar,” revealed a senior bureaucrat in the Sindh government at the time. The SSP was reinstated but not posted anywhere.

IG Khawaja vehemently opposed SSP Anwar’s reinstatement and sources privy to the matter had said at the time that the IG’s forced leave paved the way for the termination of the inquiry against the police officer. Before he was sent on forced leave, IG Khawaja took notice of Anwar’s suspected activities and ordered another inquiry to investigate his involvement in land grabbing, mistreatment of subordinates, supervision of illegal land business, leaking reports to a newspaper on the raid at Hasan’s residence and holding a press conference in violation of police rules. He was cleared in all these allegations during the period of IG Khawaja’s leave.