In 2018, police fatally shot Mehsud during a raid on what they described as a “terrorist hideout” on the outskirts of Karachi.

Here are some of the ways people reacted on social media:

“Who killed Naqeebullah? No one, says the court!!” tweeted Adeel Raja.

Senior journalist and anchorperson Munizae Jahangir echoed the same question about the murderers of Naqeebullah Mehsud. “So no one killed Naqeebullah?If this is not a blatant disregard for rule of law, then what is?” she asked.

Senior journalist Mubashir Zaidi termed the verdict as “murder of justice”.

In another tweet, Zaidi mentioned senior journalist Arshad Sharif’s case, who was killed in Kenya last year, saying that the next verdict would be dilivered in slain journailst’s case and the court would say that there was no proof of Sharif’s killing.

Taking to Twitter, renowned human rights activist Jibran Nasir said that the verdict was not a “surprise in a system where every institution is rotting away like a dead body”.

Mohsin Dawar, chairman of the National Democratic Movement, expressed his concerns, saying that the verdict in the case was a “travesty of justice”.