On International Human Rights’ Day, former Malir SSP Rao Anwar was blacklisted by the United States. Rao Anwar was blacklisted on Tuesday for engaging in “serious human rights abuse” by carrying out alleged fake police ‘encounters’ in which scores of individuals including Naqeebullah Mehsud were killed.
Rao Anwar is among 18 individuals from six countries that the Trump administration has imposed economic sanctions on for suspected human rights violations.
“During his tenure as the Senior Superintendent of Police in District Malir, Pakistan, Rao Anwar Khan (Anwar) was reportedly responsible for staging numerous fake police encounters in which individuals were killed by police, and was involved in over 190 police encounters that resulted in the deaths of over 400 people, including the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsood,” the US Treasury said in a statement.
It said Rao Anwar “helped to lead a network of police and criminal thugs that were allegedly responsible for extortion, land grabbing, narcotics, and murder”.
According to the press release, Rao Anwar has been designated “for being responsible for or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse.”
