KARACHI, Aug 8: The anti-terrorism court No 4 has fixed Aug 19 for formal indictment of four workers of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in four more cases of sectarian murder.
Akram Lahori, Ataullah alias Qasim, Mohammed Azam and Tasadduq were produced on Thursday before Judge Khan Pervaiz Chang of the ATC-4 amid tight security.
They were sent up for trial in four murder cases, registered by the Darkhshan, Gizri, Sadar and Kharadar police. The victims were Jawwad Husain, Aley Safdar Zaidi, Ramzan Ali and Sadiq Ali.
The accused were also supplied with copies of FIRs, statements of the prosecution witnesses and other relevant documents under section 465-C of CrPC.
On Tuesday, the ATC-3, headed by Judge Arshad Noor Khan, had fixed Aug 10 for formally arraigning four workers of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in four sectarian murder cases.
These cases were registered by the Shah Faisal, Al-Fallah, Soldier Bazaar and Korangi Industrial Area police.
Police have so far submitted final chargesheets in as many as 10 sectarian murder cases against the activists of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.
The ATC-2, headed by Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon, recorded the statements of two accused in a kidnapping-for-ransom case.
The case pertained to the kidnapping of a foreigner along with his young son for ransom. Khalid Jamil and Haji Mohammed Iqbal are being prosecuted on the complaint of the victim’s wife.
Khalid Jamil deposed that he was implicated in the case due to a monetary dispute with the victim’s wife.
Placing before the court his export registration certificate, issued to him by the government, he submitted that he was a businessman dealing in export of cotton waste.
He said Ms Hye had introduced him to the complainant woman and he had made a contract to supply cotton lint to a Chinese company through Mrs Wang.
The accused deposed that a sale contract had been signed between Mrs Wang and him last year for the export of 500 metric ton cotton waste.
He said Mrs Wang paid 4,500 US dollars against the delivery of the goods and she also issued a cheque for 59,000 US dollars after deducting 5,000 US dollars as her commission.
He said the cheque was fixed to be drawn on January 18, 2002, though there was no money in Mrs Wang’s account. “Therefore such a false case was registered against him before January 18,” he submitted.
The accused businessman also deposed that on January 17, 2002, Inspector Tariq Islam, the investigation officer of the case, and he left Karachi in the evening by air and reached Multan at 11pm. He said they stayed in Holiday Inn on Jan 17 and 18.
He said the investigation officer told him that the case was absolutely false, but he asked him to pay Rs1 million for his release under section 169 of CrPC. He said he paid him Rs200,000 only.
The accused submitted that the IO spent the money on buying the air tickets from Karachi to Multan and Multan to Karachi and on paying the bills of the hotel.
He alleged that Mrs Wang had defrauded him of 59,000 US dollars. “I have neither kidnapped nor demanded any ransom. I think I have been involved for two reasons: first, business dispute and, second, I refused to marry Ms Hye,” he said.
