KARACHI: The administrative judge of antiterrorism courts directed the police on Wednesday to make all possible efforts to arrest former SSP of Malir Rao Anwar and other absconding police officers in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case by Feb 19.

The court also remanded two detained police officers to prison while it was informed that four other arrested policemen had already been sent to jail by a judicial magistrate on Feb 6 when they were produced to record their confessional statements and they refused to make confessions.

Six police officials — sub-inspector Mohammad Yasin, assistant sub-inspectors Supurd Hussain and Allahyar, head constables Khizar Hayat and Mohammad Iqbal, and constable Arshad Ali — were arrested on Jan 26 for their involvement in the abduction and killing of 24-year-old Naqeeb in an alleged staged encounter on Jan 13 in Shah Latif Town and since then they have been in police custody on physical remand.

When the case came up for hearing before the administrative judge of ATCs on Wednesday, investigating officer SSP Abid Ali Qaimkhani produced Yasin and Supurd before the court and submitted that they were no longer needed for investigations, and the other four suspects were brought by jail authorities.

Remand of man offering head money on the former SSP extended

The IO informed the court that four suspects were produced before a judicial magistrate (Malir) on Tuesday to record their confessional statements under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code and thereafter they were remanded to prison.

An order of the judicial magistrate, submitted with remand papers, said that after completing legal formalities four detained policemen were individually told to voluntarily confess, but they refused to do so and said that they were not the real culprits.

The administrative judge sent the remaining two police officers to prison on judicial remand till Feb 19 and directed the IO to make all possible efforts to arrest former SSP (Malir) Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan and other absconders by next hearing.

The court also told the IO to complete the investigations and come up with an investigation report at the next hearing.

Rao Anwar, Shah Latif Town SHO Amanullah Marwat, SHO of the SITE Superhighway police station Annar Khan and 12 other policemen are named as absconders in the case.

According to the prosecution, policemen in plain clothes picked up Naseem Ullah, better known as Naqeebullah Mehsud, with his two friends at a teashop on Abul Hassan Ispahani Road on Jan 3, kept them in wrongful confinement and subjected them to torture. Three days later, friends of the victims were abandoned on the Superhighway.

On Jan 17, the captive’s relatives came to know through the media that Rao Anwar and his associates allegedly killed Mehsud and three others in a ‘staged encounter’ in a Shah Latif Town area on Jan 13 and dubbed them as Taliban militants, it added.

The provincial police officer had constituted a three-member inquiry committee that found Rao Anwar and his associates involved in the case, it maintained.

A case against Rao Anwar and his associates was registered under Sections 302 (punishment for premeditated murder), 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 344 (wrongful confinement for 10 or more days), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on a complaint of the deceased’s father, Mohammad Khan, at the Sachal police station.

Remand extended

The same court extended on Wednesday physical remand of a suspect in a case of offering head money on the former SSP of Malir till Feb 12.

After the end of his first remand, the IO produced Saleem Jaffar again and sought extension in his custody for further investigations. The court granted six-day extension.

The suspect was arrested on Jan 29 in Rawalpindi and shifted to Karachi after obtaining his transit remand from a local court.

He allegedly announced a reward of Rs5 million on social media for killing former SSP Rao Anwar after Naqeebullah was killed in an alleged staged encounter.

The provincial police officer had taken strict notice of the announcement and subsequently an FIR was lodged against the suspect under Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups etc), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) and 506-B (criminal intimidation) of the PPC read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act at the Sachal police station.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2018