KARACHI: Two of the three people who were killed along with the young aspiring Waziristan model, Naqeebullah Mehsud, by the then SSP Malir Rao Anwar in a ‘staged’ encounter had been missing since 2016, a prosecution witness told an antiterrorism court on Thursday.

Former SSP Anwar and his around 25 detained and absconding subordinates have been charged with abducting 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, 2018.

On Wednesday, the matter came up before the ATC-III judge.

The investigating officer produced a witness, a police officer who was a member of an inquiry committee constituted on the directives of the Supreme Court to probe into the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah, Sabir, Ishaq and Nazar Jan.

The witness, whose identity has been withheld for security concerns, testified that following the constitution of the inquiry committee, he was ordered by the then additional inspector general of police Karachi to visit Punjab for investigation into the case of Sabir and Ishaq, who are both said to be relatives.

He added that the victims’ legal heirs told him that Sabir and Ishaq were picked up by a law enforcement agency in 2016 from different cities in the province and they were missing until the family received information that they had been killed in an encounter along with Mehsud in Karachi in 2018.

After recording testimony of the witness and cross examination conducted by the defence, the judge adjourned the matter for two weeks, directing the IO to present more witnesses at the next hearing on April 8.

Earlier, a witness had testified that Naqeebullah was picked up by police over a week before his killing from a teashop on Abul Hassan Ispahani Road. He said that he saw some police mobiles arriving and then leaving after taking three people in custody, two of them were later released.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2021