KARACHI: An antiterrorism court reserved on Monday its order on an application challenging the decision to declare Multan Lines in the Malir Cantonment area, where suspended SSP Rao Anwar is detained, as sub jail. The officer is the prime suspect in the alleged extrajudicial killing case of Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others.

The ATC-II judge also reserved his verdict on an application moved by Rao Anwar seeking provision of better facilities during detention and fixed June 6 for the pronouncement of orders on both pleas.

The suspended SSP and his 11 detained subordinates with around 15 absconding officers are accused of abducting an aspiring model, Naseemullah, better known as Naqeebullah Mehsud, for ransom and killing him with three other detainees by dubbing them ‘militants’ in a staged encounter in Malir on Jan 13.

On Monday, Mr Anwar and his 11 subordinates were produced in court. All except Mr Anwar were handcuffed.

DSP Akhtar Jawad submitted a progress report on behalf of Central SSP Dr Rizwan Ahmed, who had replaced the former IO.

In the report, it was stated that 12 co-accused were still at large and that all-out efforts were being made to arrest them.

The IO’s absence irked the judge, who directed the officer to appear before him on the next date of hearing.

Reissuing non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the absconders, the judge directed the IO to arrest and produce them in court on the next date of hearing.

Arguments on sub jail declaration

The complainant’s counsel, Advocate Salahuddin Panhwar, argued that there was no official notification placed on record in the court about declaring the place of detention of suspended SSP Rao Anwar as sub jail, who reportedly faced threats to his life. He contended that such a decision was taken without seeking any prior order from the court of law while the IG for prisons had submitted a copy of the intimation notice before court, but it lacked any official notification to this effect.

He further argued that the prisons IG had no authority to issue an order to declare Multan Lines as sub jail.

Better facilities for Rao

Objecting to the application moved by Rao Anwar seeking provision of ‘B’ Class, or better, facilities during detention, Advocate Panhwar contended that there was no question of giving better facilities to a suspect who was not kept in prison. There is no law that provides for giving better facilities to any terrorist, he argued, pleading to the court to dismiss Rao’s application.

Bail plea

Advocate Panhwar argued that the former SSP was not entitled to bail as he was involved in the killing four innocent people in a fake encounter.

However, the defence counsel argued that his client was entitled to bail as the allegations needed to be further investigated to connect him to the commission of the alleged crime.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2018