Muhammad Naqeebullah Mehsud was killed on 13 January 2018 in Karachi, Pakistan, during an encounter by the senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Karachi's Malir District, Rao Anwar. On 3 January, Naqeebullah was kidnapped along with two of his friends, Hazrat Ali and Muhammad Qasim, by Rao Anwar's men in plainclothes from Gulsher Agha Hotel in Karachi. On 6 January, both of his friends were freed by the police, but Naqeebullah was kept in captivity, tortured, and then killed on 13 January in a fake encounter in which he was shot twice in the back. Alongside Naqeebullah, three other men (Muhammad Sabir and Muhammad Ishaq from Bahawalpur, and Nazar Jan Mahsud from South Waziristan) were also killed by the police in the encounter; Nazar Jan Mahsud was shot from close range.
Anwar claimed that on January 13, 2018, his police team conducted a raid on a terrorist hideout in Shah Latif Town, Karachi. According to him, a shootout (or "police encounter") ensued, resulting in the deaths of four alleged militants.
Anwar firmly alleged that the slain youth was not an innocent aspiring model named Naqeebullah, but rather a wanted militant operating under the name Naseemullah. He publicly claimed that the deceased was an active member of banned extremist outfits, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al-Qaeda, Daesh/ISIS and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).
If we look up at the story version of Rao Anwar he said that Naqeebullah Mehsud was actually Naseemullah & he had kept his identity fake to keep doing terrorist activities & was wanted criminal from 2014, had two FIRs, He also showed his CNIC.
To justify the severity of the encounter, Anwar claimed that the deceased had close ties to high-profile terrorists specifically pointing to a relationship with TTP commander Malvi Sanaullah (alias Fazalullah) & slain leader Hakeemullah Mehsud and accused him of being involved in major terrorist activities, including a fatal attack on a military convoy.
When a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and subsequent court findings later suggested the encounter was staged and that Naqeebullah had been kidnapped days prior, Anwar rejected the allegations. He claimed that a "fake case" was manufactured against him by adversaries and that the evidence against his team was heavily biased.
Despite overwhelming evidence uncovered by subsequent forensic investigations and a JIT report declaring the incident a staged, extrajudicial killing, Anwar maintained his innocence throughout the trial. The legal proceedings ultimately concluded on January 23, 2023, when an anti-terrorism court acquitted Rao Anwar and 17 others due to what the court ruled as insufficient evidence submitted by the prosecution.
It's strange that in January 2020, when an American political commentator living in Pakistan, Cynthia D. Ritchie, publicly tweeted about it. She mentioned that reports suggested Naqeebullah was dating one of Zardari's daughters and that the subsequent fallout was a "misdirection" to malign the state.
The core of the conspiracy theory asserts that Naqeebullah Mehsud was secretly dating Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, and that his death was an ordered hit rather than a random police encounter.
The rumor alleged that Naqeebullah, who was an aspiring male model with a growing social media presence, had met and begun a romantic relationship with Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari. According to the conspiracy, when the influential Bhutto-Zardari family discovered the relationship, they allegedly ordered a hit to protect the family's honor and political reputation.
The theory gained traction among conspiracy theorists because Rao Anwar—the police officer who orchestrated the fake encounter—was widely perceived in Pakistani politics to be fiercely loyal to Asif Ali Zardari and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership. Skeptics alleged that Rao Anwar did not kill Naqeebullah because he mistakenly thought he was a TTP terrorist, but rather because he was executing a personal favor for his political patrons to eliminate the young model quietly.
Her public statements triggered immense backlash from PPP leadership and human rights activists, who vehemently condemned the claims as completely fabricated, slanderous, and a malicious attempt to defame the Bhutto family.
It is also said that the inquiry committee found out that during his service as a senior police officer in the Malir District of Karachi between 2011 and 2018, Rao Anwar carried out at least 444 killings in 192 alleged encounters, whereas the total number of alleged police encounters led by him was 745, including 553 cases which did not involve any killings. However, not a single policeman was ever killed or even injured during his 745 alleged encounters. Eight people were killed in Rao Anwar's two alleged encounters in the first 19 days of January 2018 alone.
Senior police officers in Karachi, on condition of anonymity, claimed that the majority of the people killed during Rao Anwar's encounters were ethnic Pashtuns. They added that men were airlifted to Karachi from as far away as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas for Rao Anwar to deal with them. Another senior police officer stated: “Rao Anwar led a team of killing machines. There was no one to stop him.” Explaining why no notice was taken of Rao Anwar's actions earlier, the senior police officer revealed that “even the police command is afraid of him because of his close connections with criminal politician Asif Zardari and with elements in the security establishment.”
Following the killings, On 16th January 2018 Rao Anwar claimed that a suicide bomber had targeted his convoy in Malir Cantt. He alleged that Gul Saeed was a militant involved in the attack and that his body was recovered after the retaliatory shoot-out. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) also initially claimed responsibility for a blast in the area
Gul Saeed's family vehemently rejected the police narrative, stating he was an innocent driver with zero militant links. Outraged by the police's demands for bribes and compliance, his family forcibly took his body from the police before later returning it to the mortuary under negotiation.
A high-level police inquiry committee and a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) thoroughly debunked Rao Anwar's claims. The JIT found that Gul Saeed, Naqeebullah, and the others had no extremist tendencies, were abducted beforehand, and were murdered in cold blood in a completely fabricated police encounter.
After evading law enforcement for nearly three months, Rao Anwar surrendered to the Supreme Court of Pakistan in March 2018 and was granted bail later that year.
On January 23, 2023, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Karachi acquitted Rao Anwar and 17 others of the murders. The trial judge ruled that the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence and that geo-fencing and cell phone call records were inadequate to legally prove the presence of the accused at the crime scene.
Human rights activists and the legal heirs of the victims challenged the acquittal. They filed appeals in the Sindh High Court (SHC), calling the ATC's verdict a grave travesty of justice.
Naqeebullah's father died fighting for his son's justice like how Shahzeb Khan's family fought till the end for their boy like how he was killed by Shahrukh Jatoi & just like Naqeebullah's case ATC acquitted the convicts!!!
What are your thoughts on this case!?
