Rao Anwar acquitted in Naqeebullah murder case

KARACHI:

A special anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday acquitted 18 suspects, including former Malir SSP Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan and DSP Qamar Ahmed in the high-profile Naqeebullah murder case.

The plaintiff's counsel announced challenging the ATC verdict in the high court.

According to details, ATC Special Court No 16 announced the verdict pertaining to Naqeebullah murder case at the Anti-Terrorism Complex, Karachi Central Jail.

As per the court, the prosecution failed to prove the offense which led to the acquittal of 18 accused, including Rao Anwar and DSP Ahmed. While pronouncing the verdict, the court declared that the evidence against all the accused, including Anwar, was insufficient. The prosecution failed to prove the case registered by the police as two witnesses, Hazrat Ali and Qasim, could not prove that they were with Naqeebullah at the time of his murder. According to prosecutors, the murder was a police encounter in which four people, including Naqeebullah, were killed. However, no concrete evidence could be produced against any of the people who were implicated.

The court said in its verdict that the police encounter in which Naqeebullah and others were killed was fake. The court termed the murder as brutal. The court said that a newspaper wrote an article, terming the matter as a test case, which was a very wrong move and shouldn't have happened.

The court had reserved its decision on Jan 14 after the arguments of the parties were completed. Statements of 51 witnesses were recorded in the trial. The Naqeebullah murder case was registered on Jan 23, 2018 and the verdict was delivered five years later on Jan 23, 2023. More than 90 witnesses were included in the challan of the case, while seven accused were absconding, 12 were in jail and six were on bail.

Among those acquitted are former SSP Anwar, DSP Ahmed, Yasin, Khizar Hayat, Supurd Hussain, Raees Jaffri, Allahyar Kaka, Muhammad Iqbal, Arshad Ali, Ghulam Naziq, Shafiq Ahmed, Muhammad Unar, Khair Muhammad, Faisal Mehmood, Ali Akbar, Syed Imran Kazmi, Abdul Ali and Shakeel Feroz. Seven prosecution witnesses had deviated from their statements given to the police. The former SSP's colleague, 18 police officers and officials could not be found guilty of kidnapping four people, including Naseemullah alias Naqeebullah, and killing them in an alleged fake encounter.

On January 18, 2018, the then chief justice, Saqib Nisar, took a suo motu notice over the alleged police encounter in the Shah Latif Town area of Karachi. The family members of the deceased Naqeebullah Mehsud staged strong protests in Karachi and Islamabad. On January 20, Anwar was removed from the post of Malir SSP and suspended.

On March 21, the SSP appeared before the Supreme Court and was arrested. The police produced Anwar in Anti-Terrorism Court No 2 and the same court also granted him bail, whereas he was indicted on March 25, 2018.

Anwar's lawyer, Amir, while giving his final arguments, said that the prosecution could not present a single witness or concrete evidence against his client. The case for which the case was filed by the then SHO Amanullah Marwat was upgraded to B class.

Marwat did not even mention Anwar in the case and wrote the time of incident between 3:00pm and 3:20pm. This case was classified as B class and another case of the same encounter was registered and Anwar and others were named in it.

The defence counsel said that his client had nothing to do with the encounter. The case was reported by Amanullah Marwat, who himself had informed about the incident to his SSP Anwar through a message on his mobile phone. The former SSP sent the same message to his senior police officers, the record of which was also available in the court. The court saw the CDR in which Anwar's location was recorded after 3:20pm, which clearly showed that he was not there at the time of the encounter. Anwar's lawyer also argued that the finding report of Sindh IG was mentioned in the case registered against Anwar on Jan 23, while the finding report came on Jan 25. Anwar was illegally included in the case. The hotel mentioned in the case was in a densely populated area. This is the same place where a terrible explosion took place in the past which completely destroyed a part of the building. There are many banks and markets on this road and it is not possible that not a single CCTV footage could be found, which would show that Naqeebullah and others were detained by plainclothes officials from the hotel.

According to eyewitnesses, Anwar could be identified by his voice. Anwar was in police custody for a month but his statement was not recorded before the magistrate nor was his voice recorded. Two key witnesses of the prosecution also had mobile phones but none of the records were produced. Naqeebullah's mobile numbers were given but no CDR was produced in the court.

The defence counsel said that there was also an eyewitness Hazrat Ali whose brother was involved in the killing of the policeman and was killed in an encounter. The lawyer of the plaintiff case, Advocate Salahuddin Panhwar, said in his argument that DSP Ahmed was in touch with Marwat. Another counsel for the defence, Advocate Malik Khokhar, said that it was part of the duty that a subordinate officer should report any incident to his superior officer.

The court remarked that this was indeed part of the duty. The court said in its remarks if the DSP and the SSP had been nominated on this basis, the DIG and other senior officers should have been nominated as well.

Panhwar said that Anwar was there at 3:21pm, while the second counsel Advocate Amir said that the presence of Anwar at 3:27pm was indicated by the CDR given by him, which clearly meant that Anwar arrived after the encounter.

Panhwar argued that the officers knew about the incident.

It is to be noted that Naseemullah alias Naqeebullah's father Muhammad Khan Mehsud was following the case of killing of four people in a fake police encounter, but he died of cancer in December 2019. On the other hand, a claim was also made by Anwar that the killed people were related to a banned organisation.

Former SSP Anwar, while speaking to the media after the hearing, said that the false case had come to an end. “I have been treated unfairly. I have saved the people of Karachi from the oppressors. Alhamdulillah, the false case ended today. The judge has delivered justice to us.”

Anwar also said that the name of the person who got shot was not Naqeebullah but Naseemullah. “This city has been saved from all the oppressors. I will fight as long as I have breath,” he said.