July 11, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1423

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FAISALABAD, July 10: Chak Jhumra police claim they will submit the challan of stoning to death case before court for trial during the next 24 hours as they have reportedly completed the investigation.

A special investigation team headed by the SHO interrogated 30 arrested accused, including the prayer leader, for stoning to death of blasphemy accused Zahid Shah.

“Since statements of all the arrested accused and over two dozen eyewitnesses have been recorded, therefore challan may be submitted before court on Thursday (today). The articles used in the incident have already been recovered from the accused,” the SHO told this correspondent.

He claimed that all the relevant evidences were collected while the accused involved in this tragic incident had also been sent to jail after the registration of cases against them.

No more person or additional evidence, was required in this case, he said and added that the already collected record and articles were sufficient in support of the occurrence of this crime. This was a case of qatl-bis-sabab, and accused were booked accordingly under section 322 PPC and there was no need to add section 302 for it was not qatl-e-amad.

Meanwhile, Chak Jhumra police formally requested the police department to appoint special prosecutor for the trial of this case in view of its importance.

Naeem, brother of deceased Zahid who was earlier reluctant to testify the statement, has now formally recorded his statement saying that he will pursue the case.

It may be noted that a deranged person who was already a nominated accused in the blasphemy case registered in 1994, was stoned to death by an angry mob charging him again with desecrating the kalima tayyaba and Holy Quran in Chak 103-JB (Barnala) last Friday.