KARACHI, Dec 2: An anti-terrorism court put off the hearing of a sectarian murder case against two workers of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi after recording the statements of two prosecution witnesses.
Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5, who is conducting the trial inside the Juvenile Prison, fixed December 9 for the next hearing after the depositions of Sub-inspector Abdul Ghaffar, one of the investigation officers, and DSP Amir Hameed, who had effected the arrest of the two accused.
The LJ men — Mohammed Azam and Ataullah — have been charged with the murder of Muhammed Hamid Ali Rizvi on September 1, 2001 within the limits of the Clifton police.
Defence counsel, M. R. Syed, also cross-examined the prosecution witnesses. Special public prosecutor, Mazhar Qayyum, is representing the state.
SENTENCED: The additional district and sessions judge, West, Mohammed Sagheer Rana, sentenced on Tuesday a man and his sister-in-law to a 10-year term for fornication.
Tariq Mehmood and his wife’s younger sister, Tasleem, were found of having committed “zina-bil-raza”. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs50,000 each on the couple, who would have to undergo an additional two-year term in case of default on the payment.
The case was initially registered against Tariq Mehmood on the complaint of his father-in-law, Islamuddin, who alleged that his son-in-law had kidnapped his younger daughter.
The Saeedabad police arrested Tariq and recovered Tasleem during a raid on June 8, 2001 at a house in the vicinity.
However, Tasleem stated before a judicial magistrate that his brother-in-law had not kidnapped her as she had been with him on her free will. She also stated that Tariq had divorced her elder sister, Naseem Kanwal, and that they were going to marry very soon.
Following the statement of Tasleem, her brother-in-law was exonerated from the charge of kidnapping her. However, the two were charged with “zina-bil-raza”.
During the course of prosecution, Naseem Kanwal, however, deposed that her husband had not divorced her, though he threatened to do so whenever she objected to the relationship between him and her younger sister.
