06 March 2005	Sunday	24 Muharram 1426

KARACHI, March 5: An anti-terrorism court reserved on Saturday judgement in a kidnapping case of two minor siblings, who were recovered after remaining captives for over 14 months.

Judge Arshad Noor Khan of ATC-3 fixed March 10 for the pronouncement of judgment after he heard final arguments from the prosecution and defence attorneys.

Zulfiqar Ahmed and two brothers - Zafar Iqbal and Sajid Iqbal -- have been prosecuted in the case. Zulfiqar,s brother Ashraf has been declared absconder.

Jahanzeb, 8, and Komal, 7, were allegedly kidnapped near Carson Complext in block-II of Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Dec 10, 2001 when they and their mother were going to their school on foot.

The kidnappers, who also beat up the mother before taking away her children, demanded Rs2.5 million in ransom. They kept the children in Karachi for four months and then shifted them to the house of accused Zulfiqar in Rawalpindi.

The mother, however, told the kidnappers that she was not in a position to pay the ransom in lump sump. She agreed to pay the amount in instalments and issued a cheque for Rs250,000 in the name of absconding accused Mohammad Ashraf.

The kidnapped children came into contact with their mother on the internet. The woman reported the matter to the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee, which found out the address of Zulfiqar after tracking down the Internet Service Provider (IPS).

A special team of the CPLC and Karachi police raided on March 23, 2003 the house of Zufiqar with the assistance of the Rawalpindi police and recovered the two victims. Zulfiqar was allegedly arrested red-handed and the two other accused were arrested an hour later on his lead.

The police initially charged the three accused with abduction under Section 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code and submitted the final charge-sheet in the sessions court. Their fourth accomplice, Mohammad Ashraf, a Navy personnel, was shown absconder in the charge-sheet. The absconding accused sought a pre-arrest bail from a sessions court. However, Ashraf absconded when the case was shifted to the ATC.

Special Public Prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa prayed to the court to award a maximum punishment to the accused as the prosecution had successfully proved its case beyond any reasonable doubt.

The defence counsel prayed to the court to acquit the defendants as they were implicated in the case due to a monetary dispute between the victims' father and Mohammed Ashraf.