KARACHI: An antiterrorism court acquitted seven more policemen on Saturday in the 2018 killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others in a staged encounter, following the earlier exoneration of former Malir SSP Rao Anwar.
The acquitted officers are Amanullah Marwat and Shaikh Muhammad Shoaib, then station house officers of Shah Latif Town and Sachal police; Assistant Sub-Inspector Gada Hussain; Head Constables Sadaqat Ali and Mohsin Abbasi; and Constables Raja Shamim and Rana Riaz Ahmed.
They were tried for the alleged staged killings of Naseemullah, better known as Naqeebullah Mehsud, Mohammad Sabir, Nazar Jan and Mohammad Ishaq in January 2018.
Judge of ATC-VI exonerated the accused for lack of evidence after examining witnesses and hearing closing arguments from both sides.
Prosecutor Anila Malik said the prosecution examined more than 40 witnesses, including star witnesses, who linked the accused to the offenses, and that documentary evidence corroborated their testimony. She argued the prosecution had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt and sought convictions.
Defense lawyer Farzana Mateen countered that all the accused were framed with malice and that none of the 40 witnesses directly implicated any of them. She said there were glaring contradictions in the prosecution evidence, and that two star witnesses regarding the abduction of Hazrat Ali and Muhammad Qasim neither implicated the present accused in their statements recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code by a judicial magistrate nor identified them as culprits during trial.
Mateen further argued there was no allegation of abduction of the deceased against the accused and that the prosecution failed to prove their participation in the alleged encounter. She noted that many accused, including a former senior superintendent of police, had already been exonerated in the first round of litigation for want of evidence, and pleaded for acquittal.
Initially, then-SSP Malir Rao Anwar and about two dozen subordinates were booked for allegedly murdering Naqeebullah and others in a staged encounter in a Malir locality and labeling them militants.
According to the prosecution, Naqeebullah was picked up with two friends by eight to nine of Rao Anwar's subordinates in civilian clothes. The other two detainees were later released, while Mehsud's whereabouts remained unknown and his mobile phone was found powered off, as the former SSP allegedly kept him in wrongful detention.
On Jan. 17, the captive's relatives learned through the media that Rao Anwar and his associates had allegedly killed Mehsud and three others in a staged encounter in a Shah Latif Town area on Jan. 13 and dubbed them Taliban militants, according to the prosecution.
A three-member provincial police inquiry committee found Rao Anwar and his associates involved in the case.
In January 2023, the trial court acquitted the former SSP and 17 members of his team by extending the benefit of doubt. The state did not challenge the acquittal order, but a brother of Naqeeb filed an appeal before the Sindh High Court.
The present accused were absconders during the first trial. After the exoneration of the SSP and others, they surrendered before the court to face trial and were all released on bail in April this year.
