10 February 2005	Thursday	30 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Feb 9: An anti-terrorism court sentenced on Wednesday a man to death for kidnapping a minor boy for ransom. Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-3 also ordered confiscation of property of the accused worth Rs100,000.

Shahzad was found guilty of having kidnapped Hasan Javed, three-year-old son of Javed Iqbal, on Dec 9 last from Iqbal Centre, a residential-cum-commercial plaza on the M A Jinnah Road in Risala police limits.

Zahid Makrani, Jhangir Makrani and Baba were declared proclaimed offenders by the judge, who ordered that the case against them be kept in dormant till their arrest.

The accused demanded Rs50,000 from the victim's father on phone. They asked him to deliver money at a place in Chakiwara. The four accused approached the car and received the ransom from the victim's father. They asked him to wait for the child there and left him waiting in the car. They again appeared with the abducted kid in the lap of accused Shahzad.

As accused Shahzad handed over the kid to Javed Hasan, plain-clothes policemen nabbed him red-handed and seized a pistol and Rs5,000 from the accused. His three other accomplices ran into the narrow lanes of the vicinity as they saw their accomplice being caught.

Special public prosecutor Naimat ali Randhawa examined in all five prosecution witnesses, who included Javed Iqbal and his nephew, who had handed over the ransom. The two also witnessed the subsequent arrest of accused Shahzad on the spot.

IMAMBARGAH CASE: Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 put off hearing of the Imambargah Ali Raza bomb blast case against a worker of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi after recording the statement of a prosecution witness.

The judge fixed Thursday for the next hearing after special public prosecutor Mazhar Qayyum examined Dr Abdur Rasheed Khokhar, the medico-legal officer at the Civil Hospital, who had conducted the autopsies on the bodies of five blast victims.

The MLO stated that he had conducted the post-mortem on the bodies of Shabaan Ali, Sajjad Ali, Mohammad Ghulam, Mohammad Suleman and Syed Maqbool Ahmed on June 1.

As many as 25 faithful had been killed and 37 others injured on May 31 last when a suicide bomber blew himself inside Masjid Ali Raza at Old Numaish.

Gul Hasan, arrested on June 13, is stated to have been the mastermind of bomb blasts at Haideri Mosque and Imambargah Ali Raza. He is alleged to have planned attacks with absconding accused that included Asif Chuto and Mufti Obaid.

Meanwhile, the same court adjourned the hearing of Haideri Masjid blast case against accused Gul Hasan till Friday as the court rose for the day.

As many as 26 people were killed and 98 others injured on May 7 when a suicide bomber blew himself inside the Haideri mosque on the premises of the Sindh Madarsatul Islam.