KARACHI: An antiterrorism court has dismissed an application pleading to summon an independent expert for his opinion on geofencing and call data record (CDR) of the cell phones of former SSP Rao Anwar and policemen facing trial in the Naqeeb Ullah Mehsud murder case.

Then SSP-Malir Rao Anwar and his around two-dozen subordinates have been charged with murdering Naseebullah, better known as Naqeeb Ullah, and three others in a staged encounter after dubbing them ‘Taliban militants’ on Jan 13, 2018.

When the matter came up before the ATC-III judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, Advocate Salahuddin Panhwar, the counsel for the complainant, moved an application under Section 540 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC).

He stated that the investigating officer of the case, SSP Dr Rizwan Ahmed, had filed a report provided by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) regarding geofencing and CDR of the then SSP Anwar and his subordinate police officials about their presence at or around the crime scene on and before the fake encounter took place.

Defence counsel opposes complainant’s plea; says it’s a tactic to delay trial

He pointed out that the prosecution had produced as an expert a police official who had merely collected the geofencing and CDR report from IB officials.

He asked the court to summon an independent expert to record his statement about the technical aspects of geofencing and CDR of the accused persons’ cell phones to establish as to whether or not they were present at the crime scene when the cold-blooded murders took place.

On the other hand, defence counsel vehemently opposed the application moved by the complainant, arguing that it was a tactic to delay the trial.

He contended that the application lacked merits, thus the same may be dismissed In November last year, a prosecution witness, Inspector Hanif, had produced a report of geofencing regarding location of the accused persons on the day of the encounter, saying he had prepared the report himself.

He had further deposed that then SSP Rao Anwar, the then DSP Qamar along with their nine to 10 subordinates were not present at the crime scene at the time of the encounter according to the call data record of their cell phones.

He had stated that the encounter took place between 3pm to 3:20pm, but the location of ex-SSP Anwar, ex-DSP Qamar and their subordinates was recorded within the radius of the mobile tower of the relevant area after the encounter had already taken place.

The official had testified that ex-SSP Anwar was not present at the crime scene at the time of the encounter according to the call data record of his cell phone.

Similarly, the location of ex-DSP Qamar was recorded at 3:08pm at the Razaqabad police training center, the witness had said, adding that Qamar had reached the crime scene after 3:30pm, while the encounter had already taken place.

According to the prosecution, Naqeeb along with three others captives Sabir, Nazar Jan and Ishaq was killed in a fake by the team of the former SSP Anwar.

However, an investigation did not find any evidence of Naqeeb’s involvement in any terrorist activity. The probe team observed that Naqeeb’s social media profile portrayed him as a liberal young aspiring to be a model.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2022