“Usually a son shoulders his father’s coffin but it is nearly impossible for a father to shoulder his son’s body,” said Muhammad Khan, the father of Naqeebullah Mehsud, the 27-year-old man from Waziristan, whose killing in a staged police encounter in Karachi on January 13 sent shock waves throughout the country and led to a massive protest in Islamabad by disenfranchised Pakhtun.
TFT spoke to a dozen relatives and friends, including Abu Bakar, Noor Rehman, Mujahid Mehsud, at the sit-in in Islamabad in a bid to ascertain what led to his death in the first place. Much has been written on the police encounter by the team led by the now suspended and notorious SSP Rao Anwar. But the most important question for many is how Naqeeb was trapped by the police and became a target in the first place given that he was not a terrorist. Many people spoke of the role of police informers in the mechanism that leads to staged encounters.
“It is a big problem here because every third person is an informer and most of the informers have a criminal background,” said a tribal man who lives in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth. He did not want to be named out of fear of reprisal.
The story appears to take it beginning with Naqeeb’s desire to start a cloth business. But because he was poor, he had to work in factories to earn a living. Initially, Naqeeb had asked one of his friends, Jahan Zeb, to start the business with him as a partner but the latter told Naqeeb that he had already invested what little he had.
Naqeeb used to carry his camera with him all the time and frequently took pictures of himself and uploaded them to social media. He had told his friends that he found it hard to save money by just doing labour and he wanted to start a business to do better in life. One of his friends, Sardar Shaheen, had lent Naqeeb Rs50,000. Naqeeb supplemented this by taking 5,000-rupee loans from each of his friends through social media. At that point he was living in a flat rented out by a man identified as Rehan Wazir who ran a cloth shop in Chota Plaza at Al-Asif Square.
At one point, family and friends say Naqeeb approached a man named Nazik Mir for help to rent two shops at Chota Plaza in Al-Asif Square. Nazik Mir is said to have an Afghan and Uzbek background and was rumoured to have been one of Rao Anwar’s informers. Mir lived in Al-Asif square at Sohrab Goth.
Friends and family say that Mir was said to ride along with the police along with armed Afghan-origin men to build pressure on local businessmen. Mir and his men used to get a share of the random money in abduction cases if they helped by spying on the victim. They would often find ‘vulnerable’ businessmen who they could say had links to militant groups. If you pick them up they will pay a ransom to be freed. This had apparently been going on since the arrival of families from FATA displaced by the conflict from 2010 onwards.
Mir become a dreaded name among this area and is said to have had a network of informers. He was so powerful that he decided who would be authorized to rent out shops to anyone for business. Mir is said to have used to collect the monthly bhatta for Rao Anwar and his team from drug peddlers, gangs, prostitution dens and criminal hubs.
Family and friends said that Naqeeb had a verbal argument with one of Mir’s right-hand men, identified as Rafiullah, when he went to try to rent a shop. Naqeeb was told to talk to Mir if he wanted to do business. It is said that ultimately, they reached an agreement for Rs110,000 as an advance for a total of Rs600,000. It appears that Naqeeb’s fateful mistake was revealing to Mir that he would ask his brother in the UAE to send the money. This made Naqeeb a potential golden goose for an abduction.
It appears, and this could not be independently corroborated, that Mir tipped the police off and had Naqeeb kidnapped from Malik Sher Agha hotel at 3pm on January 13. Two of Naqeeb’s friends managed to pay the ransom and be freed. “Almost every third person is an informer because everyone wants to develop a personal chemistry with police and other officials to protect his and his family life,” explained one tribesman.
Another man, identified as Sultan Wazir from South Waziristan, who also has a cloth business in Al-Asif is said to have been picked up by the team investigating the Naqeeb case because of his alleged contacts with SI Ali Akbar Mallah of Sachal police station who is under investigation.
SHO Shakir detained Sultan Wazir one day after protests erupted at Sohrab Goth against the killing of Naqeeb.
Suspended SSP Malir Rao Anwar, Shah Latif Town SHO Amanullah Marwat, SHO of the SITE Superhighway police station Annar Khan and 12 other policemen have been named absconders in the case.
According to the prosecution, policemen in plainclothes picked up Naseemullah, better known as Naqeebullah Mehsud, with his two friends from Malik Sher Agha Hotel on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road on Jan 3, kept them in wrongful detention and subjected them to torture. Three days later, his friends were left abandoned on the Super Highway on the night of Jan 6.
On Jan 17, 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 militants.
Six police officials, SI Mohammad Yasin, ASIs Supurd Hussain and Allahyar, head constables Khizar Hayat and Mohammad Iqbal and constable Arshad Ali were arrested for their involvement in the abduction and killing of Naqeeb.
TFT spoke to a dozen relatives and friends, including Abu Bakar, Noor Rehman, Mujahid Mehsud, at the sit-in in Islamabad in a bid to ascertain what led to his death in the first place. Much has been written on the police encounter by the team led by the now suspended and notorious SSP Rao Anwar. But the most important question for many is how Naqeeb was trapped by the police and became a target in the first place given that he was not a terrorist. Many people spoke of the role of police informers in the mechanism that leads to staged encounters.
“It is a big problem here because every third person is an informer and most of the informers have a criminal background,” said a tribal man who lives in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth. He did not want to be named out of fear of reprisal.
They would often find 'vulnerable' businessmen who they could say had links to militant groups. These abductions had been going on since the arrival of families from FATA displaced by the conflict from 2010 onwards
The story appears to take it beginning with Naqeeb’s desire to start a cloth business. But because he was poor, he had to work in factories to earn a living. Initially, Naqeeb had asked one of his friends, Jahan Zeb, to start the business with him as a partner but the latter told Naqeeb that he had already invested what little he had.
Naqeeb used to carry his camera with him all the time and frequently took pictures of himself and uploaded them to social media. He had told his friends that he found it hard to save money by just doing labour and he wanted to start a business to do better in life. One of his friends, Sardar Shaheen, had lent Naqeeb Rs50,000. Naqeeb supplemented this by taking 5,000-rupee loans from each of his friends through social media. At that point he was living in a flat rented out by a man identified as Rehan Wazir who ran a cloth shop in Chota Plaza at Al-Asif Square.
At one point, family and friends say Naqeeb approached a man named Nazik Mir for help to rent two shops at Chota Plaza in Al-Asif Square. Nazik Mir is said to have an Afghan and Uzbek background and was rumoured to have been one of Rao Anwar’s informers. Mir lived in Al-Asif square at Sohrab Goth.
Friends and family say that Mir was said to ride along with the police along with armed Afghan-origin men to build pressure on local businessmen. Mir and his men used to get a share of the random money in abduction cases if they helped by spying on the victim. They would often find ‘vulnerable’ businessmen who they could say had links to militant groups. If you pick them up they will pay a ransom to be freed. This had apparently been going on since the arrival of families from FATA displaced by the conflict from 2010 onwards.
Mir become a dreaded name among this area and is said to have had a network of informers. He was so powerful that he decided who would be authorized to rent out shops to anyone for business. Mir is said to have used to collect the monthly bhatta for Rao Anwar and his team from drug peddlers, gangs, prostitution dens and criminal hubs.
Family and friends said that Naqeeb had a verbal argument with one of Mir’s right-hand men, identified as Rafiullah, when he went to try to rent a shop. Naqeeb was told to talk to Mir if he wanted to do business. It is said that ultimately, they reached an agreement for Rs110,000 as an advance for a total of Rs600,000. It appears that Naqeeb’s fateful mistake was revealing to Mir that he would ask his brother in the UAE to send the money. This made Naqeeb a potential golden goose for an abduction.
It appears, and this could not be independently corroborated, that Mir tipped the police off and had Naqeeb kidnapped from Malik Sher Agha hotel at 3pm on January 13. Two of Naqeeb’s friends managed to pay the ransom and be freed. “Almost every third person is an informer because everyone wants to develop a personal chemistry with police and other officials to protect his and his family life,” explained one tribesman.
Another man, identified as Sultan Wazir from South Waziristan, who also has a cloth business in Al-Asif is said to have been picked up by the team investigating the Naqeeb case because of his alleged contacts with SI Ali Akbar Mallah of Sachal police station who is under investigation.
SHO Shakir detained Sultan Wazir one day after protests erupted at Sohrab Goth against the killing of Naqeeb.
Suspended SSP Malir Rao Anwar, Shah Latif Town SHO Amanullah Marwat, SHO of the SITE Superhighway police station Annar Khan and 12 other policemen have been named absconders in the case.
According to the prosecution, policemen in plainclothes picked up Naseemullah, better known as Naqeebullah Mehsud, with his two friends from Malik Sher Agha Hotel on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road on Jan 3, kept them in wrongful detention and subjected them to torture. Three days later, his friends were left abandoned on the Super Highway on the night of Jan 6.
On Jan 17, 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 militants.
Six police officials, SI Mohammad Yasin, ASIs Supurd Hussain and Allahyar, head constables Khizar Hayat and Mohammad Iqbal and constable Arshad Ali were arrested for their involvement in the abduction and killing of Naqeeb.