News Desk |
Rao Anwar, the Karachi police officer who was suspended and charged for killing four men including Naqeebullah Mehsud in a fake police encounter last year, retired from the police department on January 1 after being in uniform for 37 years.
He initially joined the Sindh Police as a clerk back in 1991. A year later, he was enlisted as the assistant sub-inspector and rose through the ranks over the years. He came to be known as the encounter specialist for his alleged involvement in various controversial police encounters in which suspects were killed by the police.
The apex court ordered the government to place his name on the no-fly list and constituted a joint investigation team. He was released on bail granted by an anti-terrorism court in July last year.
Last year he was working as Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Malir district in Karachi when he was booked for killing four men, including Naqeeb, in a fake encounter in Shah Latif Town on Jan 13, 2018. DSP Qamar Ahmed Shaikh and several other officials were also booked along with Anwar. He was also booked for foisting fake recoveries of illicit arms and explosives on the victims.
The Supreme Court ordered Anwar’s arrest following civil society protests across the country. As the demands for his arrest rose, Anwar went into hiding. Naqeeb, it emerged, was a shopkeeper and an aspiring model from South Waziristan who had settled in Karachi.
Read more: A cop turned hitman: Rao Anwar wants security ?
He appeared before the Supreme Court in Islamabad on March 21 from where he was arrested. The apex court ordered the government to place his name on the no-fly list and constituted a joint investigation team. He was released on bail granted by an anti-terrorism court in July last year.