KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Wednesday ordered the inspector general of police, Sindh, to ensure that appropriate security was provided to witnesses, complainant and his lawyer appearing in the case pertaining to the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others in an alleged ‘staged’ encounter by former SSP Rao Anwar and his subordinates.

The ATC-II judge deferred till June 9 pronouncement of verdicts on two applications: one challenging the decision to declare the Multan Lines in the Malir Cantonment, where the suspended SSP is kept, sub-jail and the other seeking better facilities for Rao Anwar during his detention outside the prison.

The suspended SSP and his 11 detained subordinates with around 15 absconding officers are accused of abducting an aspiring model, Naseem Ullah, 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.

Suspended police officials, except Rao Anwar, produced in court handcuffed

On Wednesday, Mr Anwar and his 11 subordinates were produced in court amid tight security. All except Mr Anwar were handcuffed.

The court was set to announce its verdicts, which were reserved on May 29, on the complainant’s plea against the decision to declare the Multan Lines sub-jail and the suspended senior police superintendent’s plea for provision of B Class facilities to him during detention. However, the judge deferred the pronouncement of the same till June 9. It also reserved a decision on an application seeking grant of post-arrest bail to Rao Anwar.

Meanwhile, Advocate Salahuddin Panhwar moved an application under Section 21 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on behalf of the complainant, submitting that all the accused in the case were former police officials and people of influence.

He argued that the main accused, Rao Anwar, had a history of conducting extrajudicial murders, adding that according to the police report 444 people had been murdered in illegal encounters in the district of Malir during the tenure of accused Rao Anwar.

He said all the accused were former police officials and people of resources. Hence, he stated that it would not be difficult for them to threaten the witnesses and force them to withdraw from testifying and as already noticed that one prosecution witness, police head-constable Shahzada Jehangir, retracted his earlier statement through an affidavit filed in court on May 10 because of the threat to his life.

The lawyer argued that it was logical to presume that the witness had been pressurised by Rao Anwar, his companions and other co-accused to retract his statement.

Therefore, in order to prevent further witnesses from withdrawing, the lawyer argued, it was important that necessary protection be provided to the witnesses.

He mentioned that the Supreme Court after taking suo motu notice of the alleged encounter of Naqeeb had ordered/ directed the IGP of Sindh on Feb 1 to provide full protection to witnesses and the complainant in the matter.

The court was told that the witnesses and the counsel for the complainant were under very serious threat due to their appearance in the case and due to the law and order situation in the country, as well as the influence of the accused persons involved in the heinous offence, it was difficult for the witnesses to appear in the matter.

The lawyer said there was a serious apprehension of the retraction of the witnesses if the necessary protection was not provided to them. Therefore, he pleaded to the court to direct the IGP and the director general of Rangers, Sindh, to provide necessary protection to the witnesses, the complainant and his counsel.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2018