KARACHI, Aug 30: An Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi acquitted on Tuesday an alleged activist of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba in three separate cases of parcel bombs.
Judge Aley Maqbool Rizvi of the ATC-1 exonerated Mohammed Athar alias Khalid Memon from the charges of sending parcel bombs to the offices of provincial home secretary, deputy inspector general (operations) and superintendent of police, Civil Lines, on Oct 16, 2002, for lack of evidence.
In three separate judgments, the judge observed that the case of prosecution was doubtful as there were contradictions in the depositions of the prosecution witnesses.
The alleged that the SSP activist, represented by Aamir Mansoob Qureshi, was arrested by the police in February 2003, with his associate Sajid Jabbar in Nazimabad.
CONVOY ATTACK CASE: Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2 put off the hearing of the corps commander convoy attack case against 11 activists of the banned Jundullah after recording the statement of a prosecution witness.
The judge fixed Sept 5 for the next hearing after the deposition of Judicial Magistrate Rajesh Chandar, who had conducted the identification parade of accused Rao Khalid on Aug 19, 2004.
The prosecution witness submitted that two witnesses — Ghulam Farooq and Omer Daraz — had identified the accused among a set of dummies. He, however, could not identify Rao Khalid in the court.
Defence counsel M. R. Syed and Mushtaq Ahmed also cross-examined the judicial magistrate.
The prosecution, represented by Iqtidar Ali Hashmi and Maula Bux Bhatti, has examined 20 prosecution witnesses.
Ataur Rehman alias Ibrahim, Shahzad Ahmed Bajwah, Yaqoob Saeed, Uzair Ahmed, Shoiab Siddiqui, Danish Inam, Najeebullah, Khurrum Saifullah, Shahzad Mukhtar, Khalid Rao and Adnan Shah alias Tipu have been charged with a series of offences, including attack on the motorcade of Lt-Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat on June 10 last year on the old Clifton bridge, which resulted in the death of six army personnel, three policemen and a passerby.
Mohammed Qasim, Maaz, Shahab, Bilal, Tayyeb, Hammad and Fasih have been declared absconders.
MURDER ATTACK CASE: Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 fixed Sept 3 for the indictment of Bashir Khan Awan who is charged with attempting to kill DIG Investigation Manzoor Mughal last month.
According to police, the DIG escaped unhurt in a murder attempt on him by the accused who came to the DIG office to submit an application.
Bashir Awan allegedly fired a bullet on the DIG, who overpowered the accused after narrowly escaping. An illegal pistol and live bullets were seized from his possession. The Mithadar police registered a case against the accused under Sections 452/353/324/506-B of the PPC and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
