KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Thursday granted interim pre-arrest bail to three former policemen, who were absconding in a case pertaining to killing of an aspiring Waziristan model Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others in an alleged ‘staged’ encounter in January.

The suspects — former assistant sub-inspectors (SI) Mohammad Anar and Khair Mohammad and former head constable (HC) Faisal Mehmood — surrendered before the trial court after obtaining protective bail from the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad circuit bench.

Defence counsel Abid Zaman argued that his clients wanted to join the trial, but the court had issued non-bailable warrants for their arrest. Therefore, they apprehended their arrest in the case and pleaded to admit their interim bail.

Allowing the request, the ATC-III, which is hearing the matter in the judicial complex inside the central prison, granted them interim bail against a surety bond of Rs200,000 each and issued a notice to the prosecutor for Nov 19.

Then SSP Malir Rao Anwar and then DSP Qamar Ahmed Shaikh along with their around 10 detained and 14 absconding subordinates have been booked in the cases of allegedly killing four men in a fake shoot-out in Shah Latif Town on Jan 13 and foisting fake recoveries of illicit arms and explosives on the victims.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2018