- Deceased youth’s family boycotts proceedings, says court did not treat notorious police officer as accused ‘even for a day’
- Former Malir SSP has already been granted bail in case concerning extrajudicial killing of four, including Mehsud
KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi on Friday granted bail to former Malir senior superintendent police Rao Anwar in the case against him for filing a fake FIR [First Information Report] against Naqeebullah Mehsud, as the family of the deceased youth announced a boycott of the court proceedings.
The accused’s counsel submitted a surety bond of Rs1 million.
Earlier in the day, the court reserved verdict on the bail application submitted by the five accomplices of Rao Anwar in the case.
Anwar’s lawyer Advocate Amir Mansoob had observed that the investigation officers registered the case without consulting the administrative judge.
Advocate Mansoob had also argued that his client was framed on the basis of ill-intentions. The case was B-classed but the court never gave a verdict on it, said Advocate Mansoob, maintaining that when there was no court order terming the case as B-class, on what basis had the investigation officer registered the case.
He further questioned how this other case could be registered when the court had already said no evidence is available to ascertain Anwar’s presence at the crime scene.
After listening to the arguments, the court had reserved its verdict on the bail plea of Anwar, DSP Ahmed and four others. The accused include DSP Ahmed, Assistant Sub-inspector Hussain, Head Constable Khizer Hayat and Sub-inspector Muhammad Yaseen.
MEHSUDS BOYCOTT PROCEEDINGS:
Salahuddin Panhwar, the counsel for Mehsud’s father, said that they had already informed the court that they will not be participating in the case’s proceedings until the matter is pending in the Sindh High Court (SHC).
He also vowed to challenge what he termed the one-sided verdict of the ATC.
He said that he had no confidence in the ATC as Anwar was being provided full protocol and the court had paid no heed to their repeated protests.
“Rao Anwar has not been treated as an accused for even a single day,” Panhwar complained.
This is the second case in which Anwar was granted bail. Earlier, on July 10, the tainted cop had been granted bail in the case concerning the extrajudicial killing of Waziristan native Mehsud and three others in Karachi.
Anwar had filed an FIR against Mehsud and three others — all killed in a staged encounter — for possession of explosives and illegal weapons. A joint investigation team (JIT) had later found that the four had been falsely implicated, with the court later ruling that Mehsud had no extremist tendencies.
Two FIRs were then filed against Anwar — one by the police and other by Mehsud’s father — for falsely implicating Mehsud.
