KARACHI: Eyewitnesses in Naqeebullah Mehsud case have identified three out of the four policemen involved in the 27-year-old’s alleged encounter on Wednesday.
The aides, identified as ASI Allahayar, policemen Mohammad Iqbal and Arshad Ali, were brought at the court of judicial magistrate Malir for identity parade.
Eyewitnesses told that Allahayar was in plain clothes at the time of the alleged encounter and was also holding a Kalashnikov.
The eyewitnesses further said that they along with Naqeebullah were allegedly picked up from a hotel on January 13, while they managed to escape after bribing the police officers.
Islamabad Police on Tuesday raided a house in F10 vicinity of the nation’s capital to arrest Rao Anwar, who headed the alleged encounter, but were unable to find him.
The former Senior Superintendent Police (SSP), later the day, said via a whatsapp message that he did not own the property raided by the police.
Naqeebullah, 27, hailing from South Waziristan and residing in Karachi since 2008, was allegedly apprehended by police in Karachi on January 2, 2018, and was killed on January 17 in a controversial encounter besides three other suspects by a police team headed by (SSP) Rao Anwar in the Usman Khaskheli Goth on the outskirts of Karachi
Rao Anwar had claimed that Naqeebullah was a Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) militant. However, a statement reportedly issued by a spokesman of TTP’s South Waziristan chapter termed Rao Anwar’s claim as ‘baseless’, saying Naqeebullah had no links with the banned militant outfit.
The police have yet to arrest the Malir SSP, despite the registration of a murder case against him by Naqeebullah’s father.