KARACHI:Pakistani authorities Saturday suspended a senior police officer over the killing of a man in an alleged staged shootout that sparked anger and protests nationwide.
Senior superintendent Rao Anwar and other officers last week killed at least four men during what they claimed was a raid on a suspected Taliban hideout in the port city of Karachi.
Relatives of one of the dead men, who was identified as Naqeebullah Mehsud, 27, from South Waziristan tribal district, rejected the claims of militant links and said he was an aspiring model who arrived in Karachi in 2008 in search of job and had been running a shop in the city.
The killing led to a national outcry after Mehsud’s modelling pictures posted on social media went viral, triggering protest rallies in several cities.
A government committee interrogated Anwar on Friday and recommended his immediate removal “to ensure fair and transparent inquiry of the incident and investigation of the case,” according to the official notification seen by AFP.
The police chief of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, has also requested a travel ban on Anwar and his team so they cannot leave the country.
Pakistan’s chief justice has ordered the provincial government to submit a report into the killing within a week.
Anwar, along with some other police officers, had been accused of serial fake “encounters,” mostly involving Taliban suspects.
Paramilitary forces began a sweeping crackdown on alleged militants in Karachi in 2013 that has led to substantial drop in overall levels of violence.
But rights groups have accused police and paramilitary troops of carrying out extrajudicial killings in staged gunfights, or “encounter killings.”
Karachi, a port city of some 20 million and Pakistan’s economic hub, is frequently hit by Islamist, political and ethnic violence.
Pakistan suspends police officer over extrajudicial killing
Pakistan suspends police officer over extrajudicial killing
US pays about $160m of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations
- The UN has said the United States owes $2.196 billion to its regular budget
- Trump has said the United Nations has not lived up to its potential
UNITED NATIONS: The United States has paid about $160 million of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations, the UN said Thursday.
The Trump administration’s payment is earmarked for the UN’s regular operating budget, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told The Associated Press.
The UN has said the United States owes $2.196 billion to its regular budget, including $767 million for this year, and $1.8 billion for a separate budget for the far-flung UN peacekeeping operations.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last month that the world body faces “imminent financial collapse” unless its financial rules are overhauled or all 193 member nations pay their dues, a message clearly directed at the United States.
The disclosure of the payment came as President Donald Trump convened the first meeting of the Board of Peace, a new initiative many see as his attempt to rival the UN Security Council’s role in preventing and ending conflict around the world.
Trump has said the United Nations has not lived up to its potential. His administration did not pay anything to the United Nations in 2025, and it has withdrawn from UN organizations, including the World Health Organization and the cultural agency UNESCO, while pulling funding from dozens of others.
UN officials have said 95 percent of the arrears to the UN’s regular budget is from the United States.
