Karachi (Staff Report): An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday granted bail to former SSP Malir Rao Anwar in a case involving possession of explosives and illegal weapons.
Rao is a prime suspect in extra-judicial of Naqeebullah.
The trial court approved the bail against surety bonds worth Rs1 million. The verdict on the bail pleas was reserved on July 17.
Earlier, the ATC granted bail to former senior police officer Rao Anwar in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case. The court approved the bail of the ex SSP Malir against Rs1 million surety bonds.
Rao Anwar and 11 other police officials are under trial facing trial for allegedly killing Mehsud, a shopkeeper and aspiring model from South Waziristan, and three others in a staged encounter on January 13.
Meanwhile, another case has been registered against the former SSP for possessing illegal weapons and explosives. He has not been granted bail in that case yet.
On July 5, the ATC had reserved its verdict on the bail plea.
During the July 4 hearing, Amir Mansoob Qureshi, counsel for former police officer, had argued that his client was not present at the crime scene when the youth was gunned down.
In a charge sheet report submitted to the ATC, Sindh Police have finally declared former SSP as the main culprit in the Naqeebullah Mehsud’s encounter case, that had garnered the attention of top court as well.
District Central SSP, Dr Rizwan Ahmad Khan, has submitted a supplementary charge-sheet on the basis of Joint Investigation Team (JIT)’s report, which holds Rao Anwar responsible for the encounter.
According to the charge-sheet, which was formulated after taking statements of witnesses -including Muhammad Qasim and Hazrat Ali – and evidence, Rao Anwar was leading the team, which was involved in abducting, declaring Naqeebullah, Muhammad Ishaq, Muhammad Sabir and Nazar Jan as terrorists and later killing them in the fake encounter.
It was also stated that during interrogation, Anwar deliberately delayed the matter and withheld the facts and could not produce any evidence to establish his innocence, however, it has been proven that he was present at the crime scene.
