17 February 2004	Tuesday	25 Zilhaj 1424

KARACHI, Feb 16: An anti-terrorism court ordered the prosecution on Monday to produce four prosecution witnesses in a double-murder case against six workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, who are being retried on the orders of the Sindh High Court.

Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 fixed Feb 23 for the retrial of the case pertaining to the kidnapping and killing of two army personnel on July 27, 1998 in Liaquatabad.

The workers - Salman Ilyas alias Waseem Rajoo, Sohail alias Kala Munna, Muhammed Adeel, Shafiq Arian, Irshad Kantap and Abdul Fahmid - had been earlier sentenced to death by the ATC-3 for murdering Lance Naik Ahmed Yar Khan and Sepoy Muhammed Idrees of Baloch Regiment.

The two armymen had been kidnapped near Firdous Shopping Centre around 10am when they were on their way back after visiting the relatives of one of them in Liaquatabad. Later, their bullet-riddled bodies were found in a graveyard in the same vicinity.

The prosecution had examined in all 16 prosecution witnesses, including three eye-witnesses. The convicts challenged the conviction in the SHC which remanded the case back to the ATC registrar. The SHC ordered the trial court to record the evidence of two relatives of the victim, an army major and an official of the Edhi Trust.

INDICTED: The same court (ATC-5) indicted three workers of the banned Khuddamul Islam in a chanda (donation) collection case.

Iftikhar son of Mumtaz, 27, Mohammed Ashraf, 40, and Syed Ameen Raza, 44, denied the charges and pleaded "not guilty" when Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch formally arraigned them in the case.

The three were arrested on Nov 23, 2003 by the Mehmoodabad police while collecting donations near Masjid-i-Aqsa. The police seized Rs2,700 on the spot and later recovered Rs1,272,980 from the office of the banned outfit in Jamshed Quarters on the lead given by accused Ashraf. The judge fixed Feb 19 for the next hearing.