By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court in Karachi on Monday acquitted the former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Malir, Rao Anwar, and 16 others in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case.
Anwar, along with around two-dozen of his subordinates, was charged with the killing of Naqeeb and three others in a fake encounter on Jan 13, 2018 after dubbing them militants associated with the “Islamic State and Taliban”.
The court took five years to conclude the trial in the high-profile murder case of Mehsud, an aspiring model from South Waziristan residing in Karachi, which had triggered largescale condemnation and debates about extrajudicial killings in Karachi, particularly by Anwar.
The verdict was previously reserved on January 14, 2023.
Public outcry over delay in Anwar’s arrest
The incident caused widespread public outrage, particularly on social media as well as sparked countrywide protests by civil society against the law enforcement’s failure to arrest the former SSP and his team.
