[DAWN] Chief Justice of Pakistain (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Saturday gave a three-day deadline to the Sindh police to arrest former Malir senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rao Anwar.The deadline was given during a hearing of a suo motu
...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means
I saw what you did, you bastard...
case regarding the extra-judicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsood.
Naqeebullah, a 27-year-old hailing from South Wazoo, was among four men killed in an 'encounter' with a police team headed by Anwar in the Usman Khaskheli Goth on the outskirts of the metropolis.
Anwar had insisted at the time that Naqeebullah was a Death Eater affiliated with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban
...Arabic for
students...
Pakistain (TTP).
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sindh A.D. Khowaja and Additional Inspector General (AIG) Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Sanaullah Abbasi were present in court during today's hearing, which was conducted by a three-member bench headed by the CJP at the Supreme Court's (SC) Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
registry.
Khowaja told the court that after the first information report was lodged against Anwar, the police had traced his location to Islamabad. However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
the IG was unable to tell the chief justice the current whereabouts of the former SSP.
Khowaja claimed that the police had "tried their best" to arrest Anwar but had so far been unable to do so.
On being asked when the police would be able to arrest and produce Anwar in court, Khowaja remained silent.
Naqeebullah's father, who had also appeared in court, expressed his lack of trust in Sindh police and asked the court to form a judicial commission to investigate his son's extra-judicial killing.
However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
the CJP assured him that the court trusted the Sindh police and urged him to allow the joint investigation team and the police to continue with their investigation.
"A judicial commission cannot conduct a criminal investigation," Justice Nisar explained to Naqeebullah's father.
Justice Nisar asked Khowaja if he was under any political pressure, to which the IGP replied in the negative. The CJP told him to work "freely" and vowed that the court will not let "honest officers fail".
Report's findings
The three-member police committee, investigating the encounter under AIG Sanaullah Abbasi, submitted its report in the court today saying that the incident "appears to be a coordinated fake encounter".
The report said that Naqeebullah Mehsud was picked up from a tea hotel on Abul Hassan Isfahani Road along with two friends, Hazrat Ali and Qasim. The three friends were kept in illegal confinement and subjected to torture, and while Ali and Qasim were later released, Naqeebullah was killed in a staged encounter.
The report said that no evidence of Naqeebullah being a terrorist or a criminal was found and the report presented by Rao Anwar on the dear departed's activities was actually of a different person who goes by the same name.
It note that though the former SSP Malir claimed to have conducted the tainted Naqeebullah 'encounter' on intelligence reports, no evidence was available to corroborate this claim.
The report also said that while Rao claimed he was not present when the encounter happened, call records show he was at the site of the encounter when it happened.
It confirmed that the former SSP Malir tried to escape abroad and did not cooperate with the committee, which amounts to misconduct and obstructing the process of justice.
The report revealed that 444 people were killed in encounters conducted under Rao Anwar, who was appointed in Malir four years ago.