KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Wednesday recorded the cross-examination of three prosecution witnesses by the defence in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case.

Former SSP-Malir Rao Anwar, along with his around two dozen subordinates, has been charged with killing Naqeeb and three others after dubbing them ‘Taliban militants’ in a ‘fake shoot-out’ on Jan 13, 2018.

On Wednesday, when the matter came up before the ATC-III judge, former SSP Anwar and some other accused persons were present in the court on bail while others had been brought from prison.

The investigation officer produced three witnesses, including the then medico-legal officer at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Dr Ghaffar.

Dr Ghaffar had conducted the post-mortem examination of the body of slain Naqeebullah Mehsud and three other victims, who were allegedly killed during the fake encounter.

In the previous hearing, Dr Ghaffar had filed a statement coupled with post-mortem examination reports of four victims, including Naqeeb.

In the post-mortem report of Naqeeb, the medico-legal officer had opined that his cause of death was bullet “injury in his chest”, as two bullets entered his upper torso from the front side and went out from his back at the same point, creating a two-centimetre hole. He died from the injury in the chest, the witness deposed.

The witness had further deposed that the cause of death of three other victims, who were also shot dead during the encounter, was cardiac arrest.

The two other prosecution witnesses, including Sub-Inspector Mumtaz and Sub-Inspector Saleem, had brought bodies of the victims from the place of the incident to the health facility for post-mortem examination.

The defence counsel also cross-examined them.

After recording their cross-examination, the judge adjourned the hearing till October 15.

The judge directed the IO to produce other prosecution witnesses for recording their statements on the next hearing.

According to the prosecution, the police officials killed Naqeeb, Sabir, Nazar Jan and Ishaq, in a fake encounter over non-payment of amount of ransom demanded from their families and dubbed them ‘Taliban militants’.

Seven former police officials, including then SHO 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.

Anwar had claimed that the 27-year-old was a terrorist and was killed with his accomplices during a shoot-out with law enforcers in the Shah Latif Town locality.

However, an investigation declared the victims innocent and charge-sheeted the police officials for killing them during fake encounter and foisting fake recoveries.

Indictment in SBCA official’s assets case deferred

An accountability court has deferred till Oct 22 the indictment of a former Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) official and his wife in a case pertaining to accumulation of assets worth around Rs239 million allegedly beyond known sources of his income.

The National Accountability Bureau filed a reference against Adil Umar Siddiqui, who served as a director at the SBCA, and his spouse Syeda Nusrat Adil for allegedly accumulating Rs239,910,609 beyond known sources of income.

When the matter came up before the accountability court-III judge Dr Sher Bano Karim for indictment of the suspects, they moved an application through their defence counsel against the framing of charges against them.

The judge issued notices to the IO and special public prosecutor to advance arguments on the application and fixed the matter for Oct 22.

The judge also directed the prosecution to provide copies of the documentary evidence to the suspects.

In May 2018, the federal anti-graft watchdog launched an investigation against Mr Siddiqui, which found him possessing illegal wealth maintained in benami accounts at different banks, according to the NAB IO Ghulam Abbas.

He added that the total liability of Siddiqui, including his family, was estimated at Rs239,910,609 which he allegedly could not justify during the investigation and made claims that this excess income was earned through his and his wife’s companies as well as gifts.

The reference stated that being a government servant Mr Siddiqui allegedly accumulated assets, including properties within and outside the country and expensive vehicles, disproportionate to his known source of income, and maintained seven benami accounts with credits in millions of rupees.

The IO also submitted a list of alleged benami accounts with millions of rupees transactions in the name of different people, list of the witnesses’ statements recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC and a list of the relevant documentary evidence.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2020