Household says it can attraction verdict in 2018 killing of aspiring mannequin in Karachi that sparked protests.
Islamabad, Pakistan – A courtroom in Pakistan has acquitted 18 law enforcement officials, together with a former senior police official, over the 2018 killing of a Pashtun man in Karachi that triggered protests and a social media outcry.
Naqeebullah Mehsud, an aspiring mannequin and a textile manufacturing facility employee, was fatally shot together with three different folks throughout what police described as a raid on a hideout of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) armed group. Mehsud’s household and the TTP denied that the 27-year-old was a member of the group.
On Monday, the “anti-terrorism” courtroom in Karachi stated the prosecution was unable to supply substantial proof towards Rao Anwar, a former senior superintendent of police within the southern metropolis, and 17 different defendants.
It additionally stated the prosecution was unable to show that Mehsud and the three others have been kidnapped and subsequently shot in a “faux encounter” by Anwar and his group in January 2018.
An in depth verdict is predicted to be issued at a later date.
Right this moment's judgment will probably be appealed earlier than the Honorable Excessive Courtroom by the authorized hiers of Naqeeb Mehsud. https://t.co/S7hRXCxJDZ
— M. Jibran Nasir 🇵🇸 (@MJibranNasir) January 23, 2023
Jibran Nasir, the lawyer representing Mehsud’s household, stated it might attraction the decision, which he known as a “travesty of justice”.
“Those that supplied political patronage to Rao Anwar and exerted stress within the proceedings to weaken the prosecution case fail to know how with each such injustice our governance construction and the social contract between the residents and the state is eroding and crumbling away,” Nasir informed Al Jazeera.
He stated the authorized group had made public its apprehensions when prosecution witnesses started to waver about their statements and essential paperwork “went lacking”.
‘Combating for justice’
Alam Sher Mehsud, Naqeebullah’s youthful brother, expressed disappointment concerning the verdict and stated his household would proceed “preventing for justice at each discussion board”.
“It has been 5 years since my brother died,” he informed Al Jazeera. “We now have suffered a lot and confronted so many hardships. So many individuals promised we are going to get justice, however regrettably, I've to say, we noticed justice stroll out of courtroom at present. My father, who died whereas preventing for this case, stored saying till his final breath to hunt justice.”
Mohsin Dawar, a member of Pakistan’s Nationwide Meeting, additionally condemned the acquittal.
“This verdict captures the weak point of the state that an individual who is asserted to have killed Naqeeb so simply will get acquitted,” Dawar informed Al Jazeera.
Dawar was referring to a report by a joint investigation group that was fashioned on the orders of Pakistan’s Supreme Courtroom. The April 2018 report held Anwar and his subordinates answerable for the killing of Mehsud and the three others.
“Verdicts comparable to these weaken our nation’s religion in courts, in justice itself,” Dawar stated. “That is actually harmful for the state and impression society in a really unhealthy method.”
However Anwar spoke to a neighborhood tv station after the courtroom judgement and expressed his happiness that the “faux allegations” towards him have been confirmed fallacious.
The killing of Mehsud – who hailed from Pakistan’s South Waziristan space, a tribal district bordering Afghanistan – triggered a large backlash towards police, in addition to a widespread debate about “faux police encounters” and the authorities’ failure to deal with them.
Activists with the Pashtun Tahaffuz Motion rights group organised sit-ins and demonstrations demanding justice over the killing.
In January 2019, an “anti-terrorism” courtroom in Karachi quashed the fees filed by the police towards Mehsud and the three others killed, which accused them of being TTP members.
Two months later, Anwar and not less than 17 of his subordinates have been indicted over the killing.
Anwar himself appeared earlier than the courtroom in November to report his testimony, through which he denied any involvement within the case.
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