A day after referring to absconding police officer Rao Anwar as a "brave kid", former president Asif Ali Zardari has retracted the remarks he issued in support of the suspended SSP, saying he had made them "unwittingly".

Amid reports that Anwar enjoyed his blessing, Zardari had put his weight behind the ex-SSP Malir on Friday when he contested a police report that held him responsible for 444 extrajudicial killings in alleged 'encounters'.

In an interview with 24News, the PPP co-chairman said Anwar was the only one among 54 SHOs who had carried out an operation against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement during the second tenure of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

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“Rao Anwar is among those brave kids who survived while fighting [against] MQM. There were 54 SHOs who were [involved] in the operations [carried out under the supervision] of Gen Babar [the then interior minister]. Fifty-three of them were killed and this is the boy who survived.”

But a statement issued by PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar on Saturday said Zardari "regretted the remarks he made in [the] interview... that sought to give the impression of [him] supporting the absconding former SSP Malir Rao Anwar".

The former president has described his words as "misspoken and regretted any offence [caused] to anyone", it added.

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Denouncing extrajudicial killings as “abhorrent, criminal and unacceptable”, Zardari called for those involved in such murders to be brought to book.

"Enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings are twins of a deepening curse," Babar said in the statement, reiterating that PPP would never support such occurrences.

Zardari "realises that his remarks made unwittingly in the flow of conversation may have caused anguish and has regretted it", he added.

'Mere talk'

In the interview, Zardari has rubbished the claim that Anwar was behind 444 extrajudicial killings in ‘encounters’.

“This is merely talk... Why 440 petitions [against him] are in courts,” he asked.

He said the Sindh government had not submitted the report to the Supreme Court that said Rao Anwar was involved in 444 extrajudicial killings. He said the Sindh police had filed the report and the inspector general of police was appointed by the apex court and not the chief minister.

The former president maintained that the report against Rao Anwar was a result of grouping within the police.

Without mentioning the Naqeebullah Mehsud killing case, he said the issue had been sensationalised by media, “Twitter and other social media brigade” and “that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a fact”.