SC grants Rao Anwar protective bail till Friday, gives deadline for appearance

Top court orders new JIT to probe allegations in Naqeebullah case after Anwar writes letter denying them

A Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, on Tuesday granted protective bail to former SSP Rao Anwar until February 16.

The three-judge bench ordered Anwar to appear in court on February 16. Police officials of Sindh and Islamabad were instructed to provide him security prior to his appearance in front of the court and not to arrest him.

The court ordered the police officials to facilitate his appearance.



The top court has also ordered the formation of a new Joint Investigation Committee (JIT) comprising of civil and military officials, including the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The decision came after Anwar wrote a letter to the CJP denying all allegations of a fake encounter against him. He stated, in the letter, that he was not present on the spot when Naqeebullah was murdered and is being framed 'falsely'.

Anwar had requested for a new JIT in his letter to the CJP.

Last week, Sindh police’s absconding officer Rao Anwar was accused of another fake encounter – similar to the one in which Naqeebullah, a tribal youth, was killed in Karachi last month.

A family from Karachi claims that Junaid Abro, 25, was killed by the fugitive SSP and his team in a fake encounter in December last year.



Anwar and several members of his team have gone into hiding since the start of a probe into Naqeeb’s killing.

On Dec 26, the police claimed they killed two suspected robbers when they were trying to flee after gunning down a passerby – who had resisted their robbery attempt – in Ahsanabad locality of Karachi’s Superhighway area.