KARACHI: Two witnesses picked out three more policemen as their abductors on Monday during an identification parade held before a judicial magistrate in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case.

Police arrested constables Shafiq Ahmed, Abdul Ali and Ghulam Nazak last week for their alleged involvement in the abduction and killing of young Naqeeb in a staged encounter on Jan 13 in Shah Latif Town.

The investigating officer produced the suspects before a judicial magistrate (Malir) for their identification parade. The two witnesses, who were kidnapped along with Naqeeb, also appeared in court to identify the suspects.

After completing legal formalities, the magistrate conducted the identification parade and the suspects were lined up along with dummies as the court called the witnesses to identify them.

Both witnesses rightly picked out the three constables among the dummies.

Assigning their roles in the commissioning of the offence, they deposed that all three constables were present in a police van in which they along with Naqeeb were moved to an undisclosed location following their abduction.

Later in the day, the IO produced the detained policemen before the administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts after their seven-day physical remand ended.

The administrative judge sent them to prison on 14-day judicial remand and directed the IO to file an investigation report.

Six other police officials — Sub-Inspector Mohammad Yasin, assistant-sub-inspectors Supurd Hussain and Allahyar, head constables Khizar Hayat and Mohammad Iqbal and constable Arshad Ali — have already been remanded in judicial custody in the present case.

Last month, the same set of witnesses had also picked out ASI Allahyar, head constable Iqbal and constable Arshad during an identification parade before the magistrate.

Former SSP Malir Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan, Shah Latif Town SHO Amanullah Marwat, SHO of the SITE Superhighway police station Annar Khan and 12 other policemen were named as absconders in the case.

According to the prosecution, policemen in plain clothes picked up Naseem Ullah, better known as Naqeebullah Mehsud, with his two friends from a teashop in Abul Hassan Ispahani Road area on Jan 3, kept them in wrongful detention and subjected them to torture. Three days later, two of them were left abandoned on the Superhighway on the night of Jan 6.

On Jan 17, the captive’s relatives came to know through the media that Rao Anwar and his associates killed Naqeeb and three others in a ‘staged encounter’ in a Shah Latif Town area on Jan 13 and dubbed them as Taliban militants.

The provincial police officer had constituted a three-member inquiry committee that found Rao Anwar and his associates involved in the case, it added.

A case against Rao Anwar and his associates was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 344 (wrongful confinement for 10 or more days), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on a complaint of the deceased’s father, Moha­mmad Khan, at the Sachal police station.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2018