The witness, who is also a member of the police force, told the ATC-III judge that the joint investigation team (JIT) - which investigated the extrajudicial killings of youth from Waziristan - had arrived at the Malir Cantonment police station on 31 March where he was a duty officer then.

JIT informed him that Anwar had been summoned to the police station, the witness said and claimed that the JIT team and the accused stayed in the police station for around two hours conducting their proceeding.

The witness further said that he did not visit the crime scene along with the JIT team. The prosecutor argued against the witnesses' statement saying that he was retracting his previous statement which he gave to the investigation team.

The witness responded that he stated the truth on oath.

The investigation officer of the case, SSP Abid Qaimkhani, and other witnesses were not present during the hearing. The judge expressed his annoyance over the absentia and directed the focal person of the case to ensure their presence on Nov 11.

This is not the first time a witness has retraced a statement in this case. In July, two key prosecution witnesses, Sub-inspector Rana Asif and Head Constable Shahzada Jahangir, in their 161 CrPC statements recorded by the IO of the case, had also retracted their statements.

Rana Asif had initially told the police that he saw Naqeeb with three other youngsters kept at the Abbas Town police post by its officer-in-charge Akbar Mallah and other policemen. While Jhanagir, in his initial statement, said that he had witnessed the 'staged' encounter. However, while recording their testimonies before the trial court both the witnesses had disowned their 161 CrPC statements.

SSP Rao Anwar, along with his approximately two dozen subordinates, has been charged with killing Naqeeb and three others after labelliing them ‘Taliban militants’ in a ‘fake’ shoot-out on Jan 13, 2018.