KARACHI: An antiterrorism court issued on Saturday the release order for former SSP Malir Rao Anwar, the prime accused in the case pertaining to extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others in an alleged ‘staged’ encounter, who was detained in the temporary detention facility in the Malir cantonment area.

Judicial sources told Dawn that the ATC-II judge had issued the release order for the undertrial SSP, directing the Karachi central jail superintendent to “release the accused forthwith, if he is not required in any other case(s).”

On Friday, the judge granted him bail against a surety bond of Rs1 million in the second case related to registration of fake cases against the victims regarding recovery of explosives and weapons from them.

However, the suspended senior police officer had to spend another night in a house declared a sub-jail in the Multan Lines of Malir cantonment, since his release orders could not be issued as the court time was over.

Last week, the same court granted him bail against a surety of Rs1m in the main case pertaining to alleged kidnapping of Naqeebullah, an aspiring model hailing from Waziristan, with three others for ransom and later killing them in a staged encounter in Shah Latif Town on Jan 13.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2018