KARACHI, May 23: An anti-terrorism court adjourned on Friday the hearing of the Frenchmen killing case against two workers of a banned religious outfit as one of the defence counsel did not turn up.
Judge Feroz Mehmood Bhatti, who is conducting trial inside the jail, fixed Monday for the next hearing after defence counsel Gohar Iqbal was called absent.
Accused Mohammed Asif Zaheer and Rizwanullah, who were allegedly trained in a camp belonging to Harkat Jihad-i-Islami in Afghanistan, are facing charges of killing 11 French naval engineers and two Pakistanis in a suicide bomb attack last year.
The French engineers, who were helping Pakistan build its Agosta 90-B submarine, were killed when an explosive-laden vehicle hit their bus outside the Sheraton hotel.
Accused Asif Zaheer is being represented by M. R. Syed and accused Rizwan by Gohar Iqbal. Special public prosecutor Mazhar Qayyum is appearing on behalf of the state.
MASSACRE CASE: Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 put off the hearing of the Mehmoodabad massacre case against the chief of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and three others after recording the deposition of two 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 May 28 for the next hearing after statements by Haji Azhar Hussain, one of the five injured, and Tasadduq Hussain Jafferi, who were also cross-examined by the defence counsel.
Six faithfuls were killed and five injured when they were sprayed with bullets during Maghreb prayers.
The police had registered the case against four unknown culprits, who had come on two bikes.
M. R. Syed is appearing for Lahori, Azam and Ata, and Sarfraz Tanoli for accused Malik Tasadduq. The state is being represented by special public prosecutor Syed Nadeem Hussain Shah.
SENTENCED: The additional district and sessions judge, Central, Nauman Memon, sentenced a reckless driver to suffer a 10-year term for killing a man in a traffic incident.
Mohammed Imran, driver of a minibus of route W-11 had hit his vehicle with a school van in 2000 within the limits of Samanabad police. The conductor of the school van, Sattar, was killed after the van overturned.
The judge also ordered the convicted driver to pay Rs251,625 to the heirs of the victim conductor as Diyat in a period of three years.
REMANDED: Judge Syed Ikram Hussain Jafferi of the special court for banking offences remanded on Friday a suspected crook, involved in credit card fraud, to police custody for interrogation for till May 29.
Suspect Agha Mohammed Yawer was arrested by the Commercial Banks Circle of the Federal Investigation Agency on Thursday on a lead given by another suspect, Qazi Shujaat, a suspended official of the SBP.
The SBP official, arrested with a co-accused Raja Tariq, was remanded to the judicial custody.
FIA investigator Khalid Jamil produced Agha Mohammed Yawer before the special court and requested a 14-day custody of the two suspects. The judge, however, remanded the suspect to FIA custody for seven days.
The FIA registered the case on a written complaint filed by Aftab Ameen Ali, manager of risk management and fraud control unit consumer banking, Standard Chartered Bank, Karachi.
According to the FIR, the suspects were involved in getting issued as many as six credit cards and five personal loans in fake names on the basis of forged national identity cards and reference letters and they caused a loss of Rs2.5 million to the bank.
The credits cards were issued in the names of Mrs Shahida Nisar Ahmed Khawer Hussain, Riaz A Khan, Hassan Iqbal and Jamil Ahmed. The personal loans were obtained in the names of Naeem Ahmed, Sajjad Ahmed, Nisar Ahmed, Khawere Hussain, Mohammed Shahoodul Haq.
The credits cards and personal loans were issued on the basis of a reference letter and forged copies of salary slips, purported to have been issued by the State Bank.
The racket was unearthed when the Standard Chartered wrote a letter to the SBP for the confirmation of the documents attached by the alleged crooks with the applications.
