KARACHI: Amid reports that absconding police officer Rao Anwar enjoyed his blessing, former president Asif Ali Zardari put his weight behind the suspended SSP on Friday when he contested a police report that held him responsible for 444 extrajudicial killings in alleged encounters.

In an interview with a private television channel, the co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party said Rao Anwar was a “brave kid” and he was the only one among 54 SHOs who had carried out an operation against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement during the second tenure of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Mr Zardari offered anchor Nasim Zehra of 24News to look around and check for herself when she asked in a lighter vein where his government had hidden Rao Anwar.

“Rao Anwar is among those brave kids who survived while fighting [against] MQM. There were 54 SHOs who were [involved] in the operations [carried out under the supervision] of Gen Babar [the then interior minister]. Fifty-three of them were killed and this is the boy who survived.”

When the MQM returned to power Rao Anwar went underground, the PPP co-chairman said.

He interrupted the anchor when she said the officer was involved in 444 extrajudicial killings in ‘encounters’. “This is merely talk... Why 440 petitions [against him] are in courts,” he asked.

He said the Sindh government had not submitted the report to the Supreme Court that said Rao Anwar was involved in 444 extrajudicial killings. He said the Sindh police had filed the report and the inspector general of police was appointed by the apex court and not the chief minister.

The former president maintained that the report against Rao Anwar was a result of grouping within the police.

Without mentioning the Naqeebullah Mehsud killing case, he said the issue had been sensationalised by media, “Twitter and other social media brigade” and “that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a fact”.

When the anchor pointed out that it was a joke that an absconding police officer was freely contacting people on WhatsApp, he said the officer did not call him on WhatsApp.

“Not you... he called Sindh IG,” the anchor said.

Mr Zardari said the IGP should have asked intelligence agencies to trace that call.

When asked if the apex court did the right thing by keeping A.D. Khowaja as Sindh IG, the former president said: “That’s controversial. Sup­reme Court is already very controversial... I don’t want to go there.”

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2018