[ad_1]
KARACHI, Jan. 23 (PTI) — A Pakistani anti-terror court on Monday acquitted a senior police officer and 17 other police officers who were on trial over the past five years for killing an aspiring model in the port city of Karachi.
In a brief sentence handed down by ATC Judge XVI at Karachi Central Jail, the court said the prosecution had failed to present sufficient evidence to charge Rao Anwar, who was Karachi’s police chief at the time, and the other accused.
Naqeebullah Mehsud, a 28-year-old aspiring model from South Waziristan, was killed in suspicious circumstances along with three others in January 2018.
Anwar had claimed that Mehsud was a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militant, but the militant group’s spokesman issued a statement calling his claims “baseless” and saying the dead had no links to the group .
Read also | Australia: Third Hindu temple vandalized in Melbourne’s Albert Park with anti-India graffiti (watch video).
The incident sparked a public outcry on social media and sparked civil protests across the country over the state’s failure to arrest the senior police officer and his team.
Anwar went underground for three months after the encounter, but then-chief justice Mian Sachi Bunisar noticed that suo motu told police to turn himself in, which he did in May 2018 before the Supreme Court.
Anwar and about two dozen of his subordinates were subsequently charged with killing Mehsud and three others, calling them militants. He was suspended after the raid and banned from leaving the country.
In March 2019, the ATC charged Anwar and 17 of his subordinates with killing the four men on the outskirts of Karachi.
Anwar claimed he was framed for a “departmental rivalry”, but did not name any officers in the police station.
During the trial, the prosecution presented 51 witnesses in court – including forensic doctors, forensic and ballistics experts, nine private witnesses and police officers.
The ATC judge noted on Monday that the prosecution had failed to prove that the victim was abducted and murdered during a fake encounter by Anwar and his team.
“The geofencing report and call transcripts failed to establish the presence of Rao Anwar and others at the scene of the fake shootout,” the judge said.
A detailed judgment in the case is awaited.
Jibran Nasir, a prominent lawyer and human rights activist representing Mehsud’s legal heir, said an appeal would be filed in the Sindh High Court and the case was not yet concluded.
Speaking to Geo TV after his acquittal, Anwar said the “false allegations” against him had been proven wrong today.
Asked if he would like to rejoin the police force, he said he had a year left on his service and he “wanted to serve Karachi”.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
[ad_2]
Source link