KARACHI, Aug 10: An anti-terrorism court ordered on Tuesday the jail authorities to provide B-class facilities to the doctor brothers.
Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2 issued orders to this effect while granting the application of Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed seeking better class in the Central Prison.
The two brothers are facing the charges of financing, harbouring and treating the activists of 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 doctor brothers, represented by Shaukat Hiyat, were ordered to be lodged in the B-class on the grounds that they were highly qualified and serving in grades 17 and 19 in government functionaries.
The police announced the arrest of the Waheed brothers on July 2, though the family claimed that they had been picked up on June 17. The two doctors were given into police custody for interrogation in the corps commander's convoy attack case and Rangers killing case till July 14. However, they were exonerated from the charges in the 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 Jundullah activists. The two brothers were finally given into judicial custody in the fresh case on July 26.
CONSULATE BLAST: An anti-terrorism court put off the hearing of the Macedonia Consulate bomb blast case against nine workers of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi after recording the statement of a prosecution witness.
Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison, fixed Wednesday for the next hearing after recording the statement of Mehfooz, the prosecution witness.
The accused were charged with committing a bomb blast after stabbing two men and a woman to death on Dec 5, 2002 inside the honorary consulate of Macedonia, located in Defence Phase-IV.
The accused are 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.
According to the prosecution, the accused entered the consulate building late night on Dec 5, 2002 and stabbed Hameed Masih, Mohammed Asif and Ghazala Perveen to death. They planted an explosive device which they detonated with a remote control after leaving the consulate. The intruders also took away a computer and a printer from the consulate.
The prosecution witness deposed that he went to offer Isha prayers in Al-Mustafa Mosque in Sher Shah on Jan 1, 2004. He said that after offering the prayers he stayed at the mosque to listen religious lecture.
He stated, "Inside the mosque, there were nine to 10 people, including accused Naeem Rafi, Mohammed Raghib and Mohammed Khalid." The person who was addressing the faithful told them to have killed "infidels" some time back in a consulate, he added.
The witness further said that the man also told them that some major terrorist acts were to be committed in Karachi within the next few days. He said that after returning from the mosque he discussed the matter with his friends who advised him to contact the police.
Subsequently, Mehfooz said that he went to the Gizri police station and narrated the whole story to the investigation officer of the case, Sub-inspector Hameed Khan. He said that the investigation officer gave him his cellular number and asked to contact him immediately if he ever comes across any of the accused.
The prosecution witness said that he had identified accused Naeem, Mehmood, Atif and Khalid on April 17 during an identification parade before a judicial magistrate. During the cross-examination he denied to be a "stock witness". However, he confirmed to be a prosecution witness in the Hyderi Mosque blast case as suggested by the defence counsel.
