EDITORIAL: Who killed Naqeebullah Mehsud if not the police party led by the then Malir SSP Rao Anwar? Five years on that remained a mystery for the court, who let go free Rao and 17 other suspects, but not for the vox populi.
On the very day, the young Mehsud, who ran a shop but given his handsomeness aspired to be a model and was killed along with three others in a so-called police encounter with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan terrorists, the city was abuzz with doubts about the police version.
The social media claimed they were killed in a fake police encounter — a claim later on endorsed by the call data and geo-fencing of the place where encounter was claimed to have taken place — and fingers were pointed at Rao Anwar’s specialisation in killing the arrested suspects instead of going through laborious legal process.
And as the uproar over this fake encounter rose by the day the then Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited Naqeebullah’s family to offer condolences and the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of the encounter. But then came what comes in almost all cases of staged shootouts in Pakistan.
On Monday, a concerned anti-terrorism court (ATC) acquitted all accused, including Rao Anwar. There is “lack of evidence to prove their presence at the crime scene,” ruled the court, as the judge concluded that prosecution had “failed to bring home the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt and for giving benefit of doubt to an accused it is not necessary that there should be many circumstances creating doubt. One single circumstance leading towards the real doubt is sufficient to acquit the accused”.
The acquittal of Rao Anwar and 17 others brings to mind Amir Agha Qazilash’s couplet — Usi ka sheher wohi mudaai wohi munsif/Hummay yaqeen tha humara kasur niklay ga. (It was his city, he was the complainant and also the judge.
I was certain I would be held guilty). The innocent young Naqeebullah being the victim to earn his death at the hands of so-called anti-terrorist police squad and Rao Anwar implicated over the years in the extra killings of nearly 500 people being the killers’ chief, the people anxiously awaited a pro-Naqbeebullah court verdict.
It took five years to come, and as it comes the generality’s faith in our crime-tackling capacity and delivering justice tends to contract further. It thinks there are two systems that deal with issues of crime investigation and its trial in the courts of law.
Naqeebullah was killed in a staged shootout to win the ultimate state guardians’ appreciation. And even when Rao Anwar was named in an FIR as a killer he was allowed to be kept at his residence to ensure that his health doesn’t deteriorate and he is not deprived of the comfort of living with family.
A delighted Rao Anwar is now getting ready to return to his post and complete his service career. Naqeebullah’s father, who had spearheaded the cause of justice for his murdered son, is gone, leaving his family to run from pillar to post to secure justice. But that should not be the case and may not be so.
Almost instantaneously, the reaction of lawyers, media and civil society to Monday’s acquittals was swift and sharp. One should not forget that the court’s verdict following dubious investigation and pro-accused prosecution tends to undermine people’s faith in government’s commitment to fight terrorism and judiciary’s duty to deliver justice.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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