ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday said it had received another letter from absconding police officer Rao Anwar asking it to unfreeze his bank accounts.
Members of a Pashtun jirga on Tuesday threatened to resume their protest if Naqeebullah Mehsud’s killers are not brought to justice.
A resident of Waziristan and an aspiring model, 27-year-old Mehsud was killed in Karachi earlier this year.
Initially, Anwar labeled the Pashtun youth a terrorist who was killed in a confrontation with security forces.
But he went underground as soon as the authorities started establishing the facts of the case and evidence against his team began to emerge.
He subsequently wrote to Pakistan’s chief justice, saying he is innocent and the system is heavily stacked against him.
In response, the court granted Anwar protective bail and showed a willingness to reconstitute a joint investigation team probing the case against him. But the court also ordered him to appear before its bench in Mehsud’s murder case.
Anwar’s bank accounts were frozen on the court’s orders when he failed to show up for the next hearing.
During the hearing, the court said it almost appeared as if someone is trying to protect Anwar and his team members.
Earlier, the chief justice asked Sindh Inspector General AD Khawaja if some political forces in Pakistan were trying to shelter the fugitives.
The court said people are asking questions about the state’s authority due to the failure of law-enforcement agencies to capture those responsible for Mehsud’s killing.
But Khawaja said his department is getting full cooperation from Pakistan’s leading intelligence agencies, and is striving to bring the killers to justice.