Five years after the “fake” encounter of Naqeebullah Mehsud, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi acquitted all 18 accused, including former SSP Malir Rao Anwar, due to a lack of evidence presented by the prosecution.[1] The court’s decision was not surprising since many eyewitnesses were forced to change their statements to save Anwar from the imprisonment.[2] Despite unprecedented efforts of the Pashtun community to bring justice to Mehsud, his killers were scot-free in an extremely dubious legal proceeding. Rao’s acquittal is another example of how the Pakistani state authorities, including the judiciary, brazenly discriminate against the minority ethnic Pashtun community. The lower court’s ruling in Rao’s favour will be challenged in the Sindh High Court and Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has called for the nationwide protests on January 25.
On January 13, 2018, Mehsud, a 27-year-old Pashtun aspiring model from South Waziristan, was killed in a “fake” police encounter at an abandoned farmhouse in the outskirts of Karachi, along with three other victims.[3] An inquiry team subsequently determined that the incident was a staged “fake encounter” orchestrated by the police. Fake encounters of young Pashtuns and other ethnic minorities are common in different parts of Pakistan, especially in Karachi.[4] However, Mehsud’s killing drew attention to the discrimination and marginalization faced by Pashtuns in Pakistan, particularly in the context of the “war on terror” and the military operations in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Discrimination against Pashtuns in Pakistan is seen in the brazen form of human rights violations. They have been subjected to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and other forms of human rights abuses by the state and non-state actors.[5] The emergence of the nationwide Pashtun rights movement in 2018, under the leadership of Manzoor Pashteen, as a “non-violent movement” has been working to raise awareness of these issues and to advocate for the rights of Pashtuns in Pakistan.[6] Expectedly, the movement and its main leaders have been met with a heavy-handed response by the Pakistani government and intelligence agencies, with the arrests, targeted killings and intimidation of leaders and members of the PTM.[7] Even a serving Pashtun parliamentarian from South Waziristan district, Ali Wazir, has been rotting in Karachi jail for over two years now under sedition charges.[8] According to reports, Wazir is paying the price of criticising former Pakistan Army chief General (Retd.) Qamar Javed Bajwa in a speech.[9] If a serving parliamentarian is getting targeted in such a draconian way, then it if difficult to imagine the plight and helplessness of powerless the Pashtun youth in Pakistan. Family members of Naqeebullah Mehsud and civil society representatives had gathered in Karachi on January 22 to demand strict punishment for former SSP Rao Anwar and his team. However, Mehsud’s legal representative expressed apprehensions ever since prosecution witnesses of the case, who were police officials from Karachi, had started retracting their original statements against Rao Anwar and his team.[10] Reportedly, the eyewitnesses, who were present at the time of kidnapping of Naqeeb and others in January 2018, and those in whose presence the captives were taken to a desolate place where they had seen Rao Anwar on the spot of the fake encounter, had also retracted their initial statements during the trial.
In a statement after Rao’s acquittal, activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir, claimed that the decision “suggests the prosecution deliberately weakened the case as there were contradictions created in the testimonies of the witnesses [police officials] who had given statements against Rao Anwar and others before a joint investigation team. Later, if they retracted their statements then disciplinary action should have been taken against them, but it has not happened. Rather they [officials] were given lucrative postings in Karachi, which they had desired to have.”[11] Expressing disappointment over the court’s decision, Barrister Asad Rahim Khan stated in a media interview that “injustice has been institutionalized in this country.”[12]
He noted that the key to Mehsud’s encounter case should have been a “swift trial and determination,” but instead, brutal police officers colluded with Sindh’s “ruling elite” and the “darker elements of the state” to corrupt, manage, and ultimately undermine the process over the course of five years. Despite Rao Anwar’s known history of over 400 extrajudicial encounters in Karachi, he was acquitted by the court.[13] Interestingly, the United States blacklisted Rao Anwar in 2019 for engaging in “serious human rights abuse” by carrying out ‘fake’ police encounters.[14] Pashtun leader Mohsin Dawar tweeted, “The acquittal of Rao Anwar and others involved in the cold-blooded murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud is beyond shameful. No justice for innocent Pashtuns killed by state sponsored killers. The proceedings and the verdict in Naqeeb’s case are a travesty of justice.”[15] Whereas a Pashtun journalist warned in a tweet: “Majority across Pakistan and particularly in the tribal belt see the acquittance in the Naqibullah Mehsud case not just as failure of justice but more as malafide-injustice of the system. Considering the chatter around the Pashtun heartlands, the public reaction is imminent.”[16] In conclusion, Rao’s acquittal will deepen the divide between Pashtuns and the state authorities in Pakistan.
[1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/23/pakistan-court-acquits-police-in-naqeebullah-mehsud-murder-case
[2] https://www.geo.tv/latest/466715-naqeebullah-mehsud-case-verdict-to-be-announced-today
[3] http://rcchr.com.pk/practice/naqeebullah-masood-encounter-case/
[4] https://twitter.com/brecordernews/status/1617475907463319554
[5] https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-surge-in-targeted-killings/31963848.html
[6] https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/02/07/why-is-pakistans-military-repressing-a-huge-nonviolent-pashtun-protest-movement/
[7] https://thediplomat.com/2020/05/killing-of-ptm-leader-further-antagonizes-pakistan-pashtun-rights-defenders/
[8] https://www.thefridaytimes.com/2022/10/14/fifth-case-registered-against-mna-ali-wazir-despite-being-granted-bail/
[9] https://www.rferl.org/a/ali-wazir-pakistan-wife/31577047.html
[10] https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1033468-will-naqeebullah-get-justice-verdict-of-high-profile-murder-case-today
[11] https://www.dawn.com/news/1733158/strict-punishment-for-all-accused-sought-ahead-of-verdict-in-naqeeb-murder-case
[12] https://www.dawn.com/news/1733222/an-affront-to-human-rights-lawyers-journalists-weigh-in-on-naqeebullah-murder-case-verdict [13] https://twitter.com/AiliaZehra/status/1617489966015348739
[14] https://tribune.com.pk/story/2115137/us-blacklists-encounter-specialist-rao-anwar
[15] https://twitter.com/mjdawar/status/1617499576629620742
[16] https://twitter.com/IftikharFirdous/status/1617529306070257664
Photo Credit : https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/opinion/pashtun-protests-pakistan.html