KARACHI: A prosecution witness deposed before an antiterrorism court on Thursday that aspiring Waziristan model Naqeebullah Mehsud was picked up by police, made to ‘disappear’ and killed in a ‘staged’ encounter allegedly on the orders of then SSP-Malir Rao Anwar in Jan 2018.

The former SSP with his around two dozen subordinates has been charged with killing Naseemullah Mehsud, better known as Naqeeb, with three others — Sabir, Nazar Jan and Ishaq — after dubbing them ‘Taliban militants’ in a ‘fake’ shoot-out on Jan 13, 2018.

Anwar, Qamar Ahmed, Mohammad Yaseen, Supurd Hussain and Khizar Hayat are on bail. Thirteen others — Allah Yar Kaka, Mohammad Iqbal, Arshad Ali, Ghulam Nazuk, Abdul Ali, Shafiq Ahmed, Shakeel, Mohammad Anar, Khair Mohammad, Faisal Mehmood, Ali Akbar, Raees Abbas Zaidi and Syed Imran Kazmi — are in custody.

On Thursday, the matter came up before the ATC-III judge, who is conducting trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison.

The state prosecutor produced a private witness to record his testimony in the case.

Five more witnesses to testify on Sept 10

The witness deposed that he hailed from the village of the deceased, adding that after receiving information of the arrest of Naqeebullah, he along with a local Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader and others went to the police chowki in Abbas Town.

The witness further deposed that at the police chowki they came to know that Naqeebullah had been moved elsewhere on Mr Anwar’s orders. Later, on Jan 13, 2018, the witness said they were informed that Naqeeb was killed in an “encounter”.

He further deposed that a cousin of Naqeebullah had received his body and his funeral prayers were offered at Sohrab Goth.

On the other hand, Advocate Amir Mansoob Qureshi, the defence counsel for the former SSP, cross examined the witness. He argued that complainant Mohammad Khan did not have any son named Naqeebullah since his son’s name was Naseemullah.

Secondly, the counsel contended that the victim was allegedly abducted at the police chowki for around 50 days according to the complainant. He questioned as to why the witness did not lodge a complaint with the police against the alleged abduction despite having knowledge of it.

After recording the testimony, the judge directed the investigation officer to produce five other witnesses to record their testimonies and fixed the matter on Sept 10.

The judge also expressed displeasure over non-compliance with the court’s previous order, where the IO was told to present two witnesses before the court for recording their statements.

Amanullah Marwat, Shaikh Mohammad Shoaib, Gada Hussain, Mohsin Abbas, Sadaqat Hussain Shah, Rana Shamim and Riaz have been declared proclaimed offenders and warrants have been out for their arrests.

According to the prosecution, the undertrial police officials kidnapped Mehsud and three others for ransom and killed them in a fake encounter and later dubbed them as Taliban militants.

The killing of 27-year-old Mehsud had sparked widespread protests by civil society and then chief justice Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of the killings.

Against Rao Anwar’s repeated claim that the victims were militants, the trial court declared Naqeebullah and three other victims as innocent and quashed the cases filed against them.

Young Mehsud’s social media profile portrayed him as a liberal youth interested in modelling.

In March 2019, an ATC had indicted Anwar and others for the four victims in the fake encounter and labelling them as militants and foisting fake recoveries of weapons and explosives on the victims.

Initially, the father of the victim, Mohammad Khan, lodged the complaint against the police officials, but after his death his son became complainant in the case.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2020