Naqeebullah was killed in ‘fake encounter’, had no militant tendencies: police inquiry finds

Sat, January 20, 2018

An inquiry team of senior police officers probing the alleged extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud has found that the Waziristan native was killed in a "fake encounter" which was "staged" by SSP Malir Rao Anwar on January 13, well-placed sources said on Saturday

The high-level inquiry committee also concluded in its initial report submitted to the Sindh police that the deceased 27-year-old man had no militant tendencies.

During its two-day probe, which included a visit to the site of the alleged 'encounter', the committee found no sign of an exchange of gunfire, leading the inquiry team to declare Naseemullah, better known as Naqeebullah, an aspirational man who had no history of militancy or criminal activity.

The committee, headed by Additional IGP Sindh Counter-Terrorism Department Dr Sanaullah Abbasi and comprising DIG East Sultan Ali Khowaja and DIG South Azad Khan, was formed on Thursday to investigate the veracity of the police 'encounter' in which four suspects were killed earlier this month.

Sources familiar with preliminary findings of the inquiry team told Dawn that the committee members during the probe visited the site of the 'encounter' in Shah Latif Town off National Highway where they recorded statements of half a dozen policemen, including SHO Shah Latif Town Amanullah Marwat, who taken part in the alleged exchange of fire.

The SHO told the team members that the police party had carried out a targeted raid in the area acting on a tip-off from an intelligence agency. The inquiry committee discovered that the place where the purported encounter took place was an abandoned poultry farm, sources said.

SHO Marwat claimed that they had come under attack from suspected militants when they encircled their hideout and four suspects were killed in the ensuing exchange of fire, including one suspect who was later identified as Naseemullah alias Naqeebullah Mehsud.

After a thorough examination of the poultry farm, the inquiry team was of the considered view that the encounter was "fake" and "staged", the sources revealed.

The committee found no signs of gunfire which would have come from inside the poultry farm. Besides, there were different firing marks in a room and on walls of the poultry farm, which the team members declared as "post-incident and fabricated", the sources added.

The inquiry team did not find any piece of evidence showing that the police party came under attack from inside the farm.

No militancy tendency

After establishing that it was a 'fake encounter', the probe body also tried to collect information about the deceased.

The sources said that the committee members were of the view that Naqeebullah did not have any tendency of militancy as evident from his profile and social media posts.

They suggested that the deceased seemed to be living a happy family life with goals for their future in his mind.

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