KARACHI: The administrative judge of antiterrorism courts remanded on Wednesday a deputy superintendent of police in police custody in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case.

The investigating officer SSP Abid Qaimkhani produced DSP Qamar Ahmed, said to be a close aide to absconding SSP Rao Anwar, before the court and submitted that he was arrested on Feb 20 for his alleged involvement in the abduction and killing of young Naqeeb in a staged encounter on Jan 13 in Shah Latif Town.

The IO sought his custody for questioning and to arrest the absconding police officers.

The administrative judge handed him over to police on seven-day physical remand with the direction to produce him along with a progress report at the next hearing.

The court also directed the IO to file investigation reports against nine other policemen, who have already been sent to prison, in both cases, one registered on the complaint of the deceased’s father and other registered after the alleged shoot-out.

Sub-inspector Mohammad Yasin, assistant-sub-inspectors Supurd Hussain and Allahyar, head constables Khizar Hayat and Mohammad Iqbal and constables Arshad Ali, Shafiq Ahmed, Abdul Ali and Ghulam Nazak have already been remanded to prison in the present case.

The then senior superintendent of police (Malir), Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan, Shah Latif Town SHO Amanullah Marwat, SHO of the SITE Superhighway police station Annar Khan and around 10 other policemen were 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 from a teashop on Abul Hassan Ispahani Road on Jan 3. Three days later, friends of the deceased were left abandoned on the Superhighway and 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 and said that prima facie the encounter in question was fake.

A case against Rao Anwar and his associates was registered under Sections 302 (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 the complaint of the deceased’s father, Mohammad Khan, at the Sachal police station.

Show-cause for IO

An antiterrorism court issued on Wednesday a show-cause notice to an investigating officer over his absence in a case against Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Amir Khan related to terror instigation.

The MQM-P leader and Mohammad Minhaj Qazi, former security in-charge of the then MQM headquarters, along with some absconding accomplices have been booked for allegedly providing shelter to wanted criminals in March 2015 at party headquarters Nine Zero in Azizabad and using them for terrorist activates.

When the case came up for hearing before ATC-17 judge, who is conducting trial at the judicial complex inside the central prison, the IO Inspector Mohsin Zaidi was found absent. The court issued a show-cause notice directing him to come up with a reply over his unexplained absence.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2018