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KARACHI, April 1: The two accused in the Frenchmen killing case pleaded “not guilty” on Tuesday as an anti-terrorism court formally indicted them.
Judge Feroz Mahmood Bhatti of the ATC-2, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison, Karachi, put off the hearing to Thursday when the prosecution would begin the examination of its witnesses.
Mohammed Asif Zaheer and Rizwanullah alias Basheer, who were allegedly trained at a camp belonging to the Harkat Jihad-i-Islami in Afghanistan, were indicted for the offences under sections 120-B, 302, 324, 427, 109 and 34 of PPC and sub-sections a, c and d of section 7 of the Anti-terrorist Act and sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Act.
The two have been charged with the killing of 11 French naval engineers and two Pakistanis in a suicide bomb attack last year.
M. R. Syed and Gohar Iqbal, counsel for the two indicted accused, Mohammed Ashraf Mughul, the counsel appointed for two absconding accused, and special public prosecutors Maula Bux Bhatti and Mazhar Qayyum were present.
The French engineers, who were helping Pakistan build its Agosta 90-B submarines, were killed when an explosives-laden vehicle ram into their bus outside Sheraton hotel.
The bus of the Pak Navy, carrying the French engineers, was about to move in front of the hotel on Club Road in the morning, when a red car stopped beside the bus and blew up with a bang, destroying it completely and causing damage to shops on the ground floors of Pearl Continental and Sheraton hotels.
DATE EXTENDED: Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the anti-terrorism court-3, who is also the acting administrative judge of the ATCs at Karachi, extended on Tuesday the date for submitting the challan of Abdul Wahab alias Afghani, an activist of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, and directed the police to submit the challan on April 7, adds PPI.
Abdul Wahab is charged with killing nine persons and injuring eight others at an Imambargah in Al-Falah Society on Feb 22. Two accomplices of the accused, Shaukat and Shahnawaz, have been declared absconders in the case.
According to the police, the accused, with two others, fired on people with automatic weapons when they were going to offer Maghrib prayers in Imambargah Al-Muntazir Al-Mehdi at Al-Falah Society.
The police were to submit challan on Tuesday along with four other cases against Wahab but submitted the challan of one case and requested for more time. The judge directed the investigation officer of the case to submit the said challan with the main case.
The FIR against Abdul Wahab was lodged at Arambagh police station on a charge of killing Mohammed Baqar and Ghulam Husain in a bakery at Lighthouse area on Feb 27. In another case, the police recovered a submachine gun with 30 rounds from his possession at house No B/84 in Model Colony.
He has also been charged with planting a bomb in a parking area near the PSO House and in the explosion one person was killed and two others were injured on Feb 3, 2003 and the killing of a journalist, Saghir Kazmi, in Korangi on Feb 20.
