On third death anniversary, Naqeebullah Mehsud's family says losing hope for justice.

The family and legal team of Naqeebullah Mehsud on Sunday expressed the apprehension that former Malir SSP Rao Anwar might be acquitted in the murder case due to a perceived lack of interest of the prosecution and investigators, saying they were losing the hope for justice.

They were addressing a press conference alongside members of a Grand Jirga and a PTI lawmaker at the Karachi Press Club on Naqeeb's third death anniversary.

Anwar, along with around two dozen of his subordinates, have been charged with killing the aspiring model from South Waziristan and three others after dubbing them "Taliban militants" in a "fake shoot-out" on January 13, 2018.

The family and others noted that at least five prosecution witnesses, all serving police officers, had retracted their statements in the case but authorities had not taken any disciplinary action against them.

See: Dawn Investigations: Rao Anwar and the killing fields of Karachi

They urged the Supreme Court to carry out "monitoring or checks" on the case as was done earlier in order to provide justice to the family.

Alam Sher, Naqeeb's brother, while speaking at the press conference said their father Mohammad Khan had passed away with the hope that the family would get justice but now "we are losing hope."

He recalled that now-Prime Minister Imran Khan had joined protests in Karachi and Islamabad against Naqeeb's killing and urged him to "take interest in the case". He also pointed out that the federal government had promised to establish a college in Naqeeb's name in his village in South Waziristan but it had not happened so far.

'Brave child'

Lawyer Jibran Nasir said there were 30 accused in the case; of them, five police officers were on bail, the bail of 18 other officers was rejected who were sent to prisons, while seven policemen were still absconding.

He noted that five policemen who were witnesses of the crime scene and other aspects of the case had retracted their statements. He said the case was based on their testimonies and even though they all were state employees being policemen, the Sindh government or police had not taken any disciplinary action against them; instead, those policemen were being granted "favourite posts".

'We have apprehensions that the state, police and the prosecution have made full preparations to get Rao Anwar acquitted in the Naqeeb case,' Nasir said, adding that such an outcome would also mean Anwar would be absolved of the murders of 444 other people...

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