KARACHI: The Inspector General of Police, Sindh, formed on Thursday an inquiry team comprising three top police officers to probe the veracity of a `police encounter’ in which Naseemullah, better known as Naqeebullah Mehsud, was shot dead by Malir police on Jan 13, with three other suspects, in the Shah Latif Town area of the city.

The killing triggered widespread uproar on the social media as both relatives and friends said that Naqeebullah had nothing to do with militancy as he was keenly interested in art work and modelling and he was picked up by members of law enforcement agencies from his clothes’ shop in Sohrab Goth earlier in January and was subsequently killed in a `police encounter’.

According to an order issued by the IGP office, the committee has been constituted to conduct a detailed inquiry into the alleged police encounter with Naseemullah alias Naqeebullah Mehsud and others.

Additional IG of CTD Dr Sanaullah Abbasi would be the chairman of the committee and DIG East-Zone Sultan Ali Khowaja and DIG South-Zone Azad Khan would be its members.

Regarding terms of reference of the committee, a notification issued by DIG Headquarters Munir Ahmed Shaikh said that the panel would “assess and conduct genuineness of the encounter of Malir police and to dig out the profile of the deceased namely Naseemullah alias Naqeeb Mehsud”.

The committee was told to submit its specific recommendations in the light of the inquiry to the IGP Sindh within three days.

Earlier, taking notice of media reports about the killing of the young man from Waziristan, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari directed the home minister to immediately look into the matter.

Subsequently, the home minister of Sindh, Sohail Anwar Siyal, appointed the DIG of South, Azad Khan, to investigate the matter.

According to family members, Naqeebullah Mehsud came to Karachi around nine months ago. Previously, he used to work at a petrol pump in Hub, Balochistan.

He recently set up a clothes’ shop in Sohrab Goth from where he was allegedly picked up by members of law-enforcement agencies earlier in January.

Malir SSP’s claim

Meanwhile, Malir SSP Rao Anwar Ahmed denied on Thursday that Naqeebullah or Naseemullah Mehsud was killed in a ‘staged encounter’.

In a press statement issued here, the SSP claimed that intelligence agencies had provided him ‘credible information’ that Naqeebullah belonged to Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan based in South Waziristan and that he was involved in the target killings of FC Subedar Alam and his relative Aijaz Mehsud and an armed attack on the FC camp in Makeen area of Waziristan in which his (Naqeeb’s) cousin Battu was killed.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018