KARACHI, Jan 13:An anti-terrorism appellate bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Justice Azizullah M Memon, on Tuesday put off the hearing of an appeal filed by the state against the acquittal of Mohammed Ajmal alias Akram Lahori , chief of the banned religious party Laskhar-i-Jhangvi and two co-accused in a murder case of a security guard at an Imambargah.

Akram Lahori, Mohammed Azam alias Shan and Tassaduq Hussain alias Shaikh were acquitted by an anti-terrorism court (ATC-V) on charges of killing a security guard Nazeer. Co-accused Ataullah was sentenced to death in the case.

According to prosecution, the convict, accompanied by the acquitted accused, came to Mehfil-i-Zainab, snatched gun from the deceased and shot and killed him before fleeing from the scene of incident.

When the appeal came up for hearing, the bench inquired whether the accused have engaged a counsel or not. The court was informed that the appellants are yet to hire a counsel at which the bench put off the hearing till Feb 10 allowing more time to the accused to engage a counsel. All the three accused were produced before the bench.