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| September 5, 2005 | Monday | Rajab 30, 1426 |
Convict a mental patient: family: Plot to kill Musharraf
PESHAWAR, Sept 4: Family members of Adnan Khan, convicted of an attempt to kill President Gen Musharraf, have claimed that Adnan is innocent and intelligence agencies have implicated him in the case.
The convict’s elder brother Abdul Qudoos has requested Gen Pervez Musharraf, who is also the appellate authority under the Army Act of 1952, to set aside the conviction of Mr Khan, 20. The Field General Court Martial has sentenced him to 15-year RI.
The family members believe that due to continuous detention since Feb 12, 2004, he is suffering from some mental ailment, which was even evident during the trial. None of the family members saw him after his arrest.
Khan was allegedly picked from his residence in Jamrud, Khyber Agency, a tribal agency adjacent to Afghanistan.
The trial of eight civilians, including a woman, Shazia Mubashir, and a low-ranking army officer was conducted in the Attock Fort. The arguments and other proceedings in the case were concluded on Jul 21, 2005, and judgment was reserved.
On Aug 26, 2005, the spokesman of Pakistan Army, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, announced the conviction of the eight persons. He did not inform who had convicted them.
He only announced that Naik Arshad Mahmood, Zubair Ahmad, Rashid Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhutti and Akhlas Ahmad had been handed down death, while three other accused were sentenced to imprisonment: Rana Muhammad Naveed for life; Adnan Khan for 15 years and Aamir Sohail for 20 years. These three have been imprisoned in a civilian prison in Jehlum and nobody is allowed to meet them.
The only woman accused, stated to be wife of Rana Muhammad Naveed, was acquitted.
Another army officer, Lance Naik Zaffar Iqbal Dogar, had appeared as a key witness against the accused. Mr Dogar was stated to be a companion of the convicts during initial stages of the plot and had withdrawn later.
“Technically, Mr Dogar could not be termed approver as there is no such concept in the Army Act,” said a lawyer who deals with cases under the army act.
Background interviews with some of the persons privy to the trial suggested that relatives of all the eight convicts would file appeals against the conviction.
They said that although the defence was given opportunity to cross-examine prosecution witnesses, but it could not be termed a fair trial as most of the witnesses had remained in custody of the army officials and they were not in a position to give a fair testimony inside the fort.
Some private lawyers were allowed to appear for some of the accused. Advocate Khalid Mahmood had represented Akhlas Ahmad, Sardar Abdul Majeed Khan appeared for Rashid Qureshi and Habibur Rehman appeared for Adnan Khan.
Abdul Qudoos told Dawn that not a single witness had testified against his brother during the trial.
Sources privy to the trial said that one of the witnesses brought against Khan had declined to testify against him, stating that he had been in custody for three months and had been forced to testify against him.
The civilian counsel allowed to contest Adnan’s case had withdrawn his power of attorney as according to him, Khan was not following his instructions. He (Adnan) had started claiming that he was an activist of a proscribed organization and had got training in a camp in Mansehra, the lawyer said.
Mr Qudoos has questioned the claim of his brother, stating that he was a student of the Government High School, Jamrud, and had never been to any training camp. Adnan appeared to be suffering from some mental ailment and he was giving this statement due to the same reasons, he added.
The case of Adnan Khan took various twists and turns before his conviction. He was picked from his family residence in Jamrud on Feb 14, 2004. After his family failed to locate him, Abdul Qudoos filed a habeas corpus petition in the Peshawar High Court.
The said petition was disposed of on Feb 16, 2005, by a two-member bench as the intelligence agencies concerned and the tribal administration had expressed ignorance about his whereabouts.
Mr Qadoos filed another petition when he received a written communication from a tehsildar concerned that Mr Khan had been turned over to an intelligence agency.
However, the tribal administration disowned that communication.
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