KARACHI: A judicial magistrate recorded statements of two witnesses in Naqeeb Ullah Mehsud murder case and also allowed an application of police to hold an identification parade of six detained police officials, it emerged on Monday.

Police produced both witnesses before a judicial magistrate (Malir) amid tight security arrangements.

They deposed that policemen in plainclothes picked them up with 24-year-old Naseem Ullah, better known as Naqeeb Ullah Mehusd, from a teashop on Abul Hassan Ispahani Road around 3pm on Jan 3 and both of them remained in captivity for three days.

The witnesses further testified that they were subjected to torture during detention and left abandoned on the Superhighway on the night of Jan 6.

The investigating officer also moved an application before the court for identification parade of six detained police officials through both witnesses. The magistrate allowed the plea and fixed a date for the identification parade.

On Jan 27, police had obtained physical remand of sub-inspector Mohammad Yasin, assistant sub-inspectors Supurd Hussain and Allahyar, head constables Khizar Hayat and Mohammad Iqbal and constable Arshad Ali from the administrative judge of antiterrorism courts, Karachi, till Jan 31.

The then senior superintendent of police (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, Naseem Ullah was picked up with his two friends allegedly by eight to nine plainclothes subordinates of Rao Anwar and later other two detainees were set free while the whereabouts of Mehsud remained unknown and his mobile phone was also found powered off as the former SSP allegedly kept him in wrongful detention, it added.

It further stated that on Jan 17, the captive’s relatives came to know through the media that Rao Anwar and his associates allegedly killed Mehsud 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 (punishment for premeditated murder), 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 344 (wrongful confinement for ten 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, January 30th, 2018