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KARACHI, May 20: The defence counsel in a bomb blast case against a worker of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan sought on Tuesday adjournment for advancing final arguments in the defence of his client.
Judge Feroz Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2, who is conducting trial inside the Central Prison, fixed Thursday for hearing the final arguments from the prosecution and the defence.
Sabir Waseem, the SSP worker, has been charged with launching an anti-tank rocket (BM-107) that had pierced through the wall of the Commerce College on Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed Road on Nov 23, 2001.
According to prosecution, accused Waseem, with his absconding accomplice, Asif Ramzi, reached the college to fire the rocket to target Americans staying at the second and third floors of Sheraton Hotel.
The two Aalmi men, carrying the rocket and its locally-made launcher in a kit bag, allegedly reached the hotel on a motorbike around 9:30pm. The two positioned the launcher on the pushcart of a junk vendor. While accused Waseem was still trying to position the launcher to the hotel, the rocket was detonated due to a short-circuit and hit the wall of the Commerce College. It landed in a classroom making an eight-inch hole in the wall.
According to bomb disposal squad, the device was an anti-tank rocket, weighing 25 kilograms with 10 to 12 kgs of explosive material.
Waseem was arrested red-handed during a shootout with the police following an attack on a prisoners’ van, which was carrying among others Dilawar Hussain, a worker of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan.
Two people, including a constable, Shakil, were killed when the prisoners’ van, also carrying some sectarian workers, was ambushed on Feb 28, this year near Bohra Pir within the limits of Nabi Bux police. Ramzi and two others, Ata ur Rahman and Naeem Bukhari, were declared absconders in this case.
During the interrogation, the police found the lower body of Waseem severely burnt. He disclosed before the police that he was himself injured while firing the rocket.
MASSACRE CASE: Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC- 5 adjourned the hearing of the Mehmoodabad massacre case against the chief of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and three others after recording the statements of three prosecution witnesses.
LJ chief Akram Lahori, Mohammed Azam, Attaullah and Malik Tasadduq were charged with killing six people and injuring five others in an attack on April 10, 2001, on Ali Murtaza Imambargah in Mehmoodabad.
The judge, who is conducting the trial inside the juvenile jail, fixed Wednesday for recording the statements of further prosecution witnesses.
Six faithful were killed and five injured when they were sprayed with volleys of bullets during Maghreb prayers.
The police had registered the case against four unknown culprits, who had come on two bikes.
