January 15, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 14, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 14: An anti-terrorism court deferred on Saturday the judgement in the murder case of a constable. The ATC-3, headed by Judge Syed Saghir Hussain Zaidi, fixed Jan 21 for the pronouncement of the judgement.

Ghulam Qadir Patni has been charged with the killing of constable Jahangir on March 23 this year within the limits of Baghdadi police.

According to prosecution, constables Jahangir and Anser were patrolling the vicinity on their motorcycle. They spotted accused Ghulam Qadir Patni and his absconding accomplice Shaukat who were also riding a bike. The policemen signalled the motorcyclists to stop, but they tried to speed away. However, the policemen overtook their bike on the D D Chaudhry Road and tried to stop the accused. The accused took out their pistols and opened fire on the policemen. PC Jahangir received four bullets and died shortly after being shifted to the Civil Hospital. PC Anser was also seriously injured as he sustained three bullets. The accused also took away the official sub-machine gun of the policeman, which was later recovered from the house of accused Patni in Bhutta Village, Keamari.

CONVOY ATTACK CASE: An anti-terrorism court put off the hearing of the corps commander convoy attack case against 11 workers of the banned Jundullah till Jan 21 as one of the defence counsel did not turn up.

Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2 marked defence counsel M R Syed absent.

The statements of the accused persons were to be recorded as the prosecution had already concluded its evidence. The court would record statements of the accused on the next hearing.

Ata ur Rehman alias Ibrahim, Shahzad Ahmed Bajwah, Yaqoob Saeed, Uzair Ahmed, Shoiab Siddiqui, Danish Inam, Najeebullah, Khurrum Saifullah, Shahzad Mukhtar and Khalid Rao were formally indicted on Sept 23, 2004, for a series of offences, including attack on the motorcade of the then corps commander of Sindh, Lt-Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, on June 10, 2004, on the old Clifton bridge, which resulted in the death of six army personnel, three policemen and a passer-by.

The Jundullah men, represented by M R Syed and Mushtaq Ahmed, were charged with the offences under Sections 302, 324, 404 and 34 of PPC, Section 7 of the Anti-terrorist Act, 1997, and Section 3, 4 and 5 of the Explosive Act. Adnan Shah alias Tipu, Mohammed Qasim, Maaz, Shahab, Bilal, Tayyeb, Hammad and Fasih have been declared absconders.