March 25, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 21, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, March 24: The judge of anti-terrorist court No. 1, Manzoor Ahmad Mirza, on Monday acquitted three members of a banned outfit of terrorism charges due to lack of evidence against them.

According to the prosecution, Pirwadhai police booked the accused — Mohammad Ijaz, Sajid Mohammad and Saifur Rehman — after exchange of fire with a police party in Khayaban-i-Sir Syed.

The prosecution alleged that during the encounter, eight accomplices of the accused escaped, while the police recovered two rocket launchers, three machine guns and 1,000 bullets of Kalashnikov from the house of the accused.

However, the defence council challenged the accusations and contended that there had never been an encounter between the police and the accused.

The council maintained that the accused were in the custody of Karachi police in another criminal case when the police claimed that an encounter occurred.

The defence council also presented the FIR of the Karachi police besides, clippings of national and local dailies regarding the arrest of the accused.