KARACHI, Aug 9: An anti-terrorism court in Karachi on Monday reserved order on an application submitted by doctor brothers seeking B-Class for them in jail.
Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2 heard on Monday arguments from defence counsel Shaukat Hiyat and special public prosecutor Maula Bux Bhutto on an application by Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed.
The two brothers are facing charges of financing, harbouring and treating the activists of the Jundullah. According to police, some Jundullah activists, arrested for their involvement in an attack on the corps commander's convoy and other terrorist activities, stated that the doctor brothers had close links with them.
The defence counsel contended that his clients were entitled to be lodged in B-Class as both were exceptionally highly qualified. He said one of the doctors was a cardiac surgeon working in Grade-19 at the National Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases, while the other doctor was an expert in kidney diseases in grade-17.
Shaukat Hiyat argued that the two doctors were income tax payers and they had no criminal background, nor they were desperate and dangerous criminals. He also referred to an amendment in the Rule 248 of the Prison's Rules which makes an officer of grade 17 or above entitled to B-Class.
The police announced the arrest of Waheed brothers on July 2, though the family claimed that they had been picked up on June 17. The two doctors were given in police custody for interrogation in the corps commander's convoy attack and Rangers killing cases till July 14. However, they were exonerated in two cases and the police booked them in a fresh case on July 15.
The fresh case was registered by the Gulshan-i-Iqbal police under Sections 201, 211 and 216 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Sections 21-C, 21-J and 11-M of the Anti-terrorism Act for financing, assisting, harbouring and treating the activists of the banned Jundullah.
The police obtained their further custody in the new case and the two brothers were finally given in judicial custody on July 26.
INDICTMENT: Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the Anti-terrorism Court No. 3 (ATC-3) indicted on Monday an accused in a kidnapping-cum-murder case. Shafqat Hussain, who was charged with the kidnapping a seven- year old boy for ransom and later killing him, denied the allegations and pleaded "not guilty".
The accused was the watchman of Nadeem Arcade and he allegedly kidnapped Umair on April 10, this year around 5:30pm as he came downstairs from his second-floor flat.
According to prosecution, the watchman took the boy to his room. He hit the victim's head with a club when the boy insisted to leave the room. The boy died instantly and the watchman dumped the body in the room.
The accused contacted the family on phone and demanded Rs500,000 from victim's father, Mohammed Hanif, a car dealer, for Omair's release. The next night he disposed of the body in a nearby drain.
The alleged kidnapper kept on calling the victim's family from different PCOs. He also called the car dealer twice at different places to deliver the ransom, though he himself never turned up.
Finally, he asked the victim's father to place money under a wooden box lying inside the compound of Nadeem Arcade. This led to his arrest on May 21 as the police found the box belonging to the watchman.
During interrogation the accused allegedly confessed to have kidnapped and killed the boy. He disclosure led to the recovery of the body. Judge put off the hearing of the case till Tuesday and ordered the special public prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa to produce prosecution witnesses.
BLAST CASE: An anti-terrorism court put off the hearing of the Macedonian Consulate bomb blast case against nine workers of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi on the request of the defence counsel.
Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison, fixed Tuesday for the next hearing after a junior to defence counsel M. R. Syed informed the court that he was engaged before a bench of the Sindh High Court.
The accused were charged with committing a bomb blast after stabbing two men and a woman to death on December 5, 2002 inside the honorary consulate of Macedonia, situated at the phase four of the DHA.
The accused are Syed Sohail Akhtar alias Mustafa, Zafar Iqbal alias Sohail, Naeem Rafi alias Nimmi, Mohammed Atif, Sameerullah alias Somi, Mohammed Khalid alias Shahzad, Abdur Razzaq alias Bhiya, Syed Ahmed Kazmi alias Shahbaz and Mehmoodullah.
KIDNAPPING CASE: Judge Arshad Noor Khan of anti-terrorism court on Monday remanded two accused Athar Mehmood and Khurrum Mushtaq to judicial custody till Aug 16 in a kidnapping and killing case, adds PPI.
The investigation officer was directed to submit charge-sheet against the accused on the next date of hearing. The court was requested to remand the accused for judicial custody.
The accused, with co-accused Asif, Sheryar and Ms Shabana, are charged with killing Raghib Abbas after kidnapping. According to police, co-accused Sheraz made the victim his friend through chatting on internet by portraying him as a girl and invited him to meet near Rado flats, Block-12, Gulistan-i-Johar on March 31. As he reached the spot, accused kidnapped him with other co-accused Asif and Ms Shabana.
The accused held Raghib hostage on gunpoint and demanded Rs 1 million as ransom from his family. On failure, they injected poisonous substance in his body and left him in a car in an unconscious condition near his house.
He was rushed to the hospital where he later died on April 16. The case was registered on a complaint by victim's father Syed Hasan Abbas and the accused was booked under Section 365-A, 302, 34 Pakistan Penal Code.
