KARACHI: Judgment reserved in US consulate blast case
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 23: The prosecution in the US Consulate car bombing case pleaded on Friday for awarding capital punishment to an alleged worker of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi as an anti-terrorism court fixed June 29 for pronouncement of the judgement.
Judge Ghulam Ali Samtio of the ATC-1 reserved the verdict after hearing final arguments from special public prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa and defence counsel Samiullah.
Naveedul Hassan, who was earlier shown as absconder, has been prosecuted for his involvement in the US Consulate car bombing that had killed 12 people, including five women.
He was charged with the offences under Sections 302, 324,427 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), Section 3/4 of the Explosive Act, and Section 7-B of the Anti-terrorist Act.
Earlier, the then judge of ATC-1, Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi, had convicted the HMA chief, Mohammed Imran, his deputy Mohammed Ashraf, finance secretary Mohammed Hanif, and two party workers Sharib and Zubair, in the case.
The prosecutor, who examined 11 prosecution witnesses, prayed to the court to award death penalty to the accused as ‘the prosecution had brought sufficient evidence against them’.
He referred to the confessional statement of the accused and contended that the court had already convicted two of his party leaders in the instant case.
The defence counsel, however, prayed to the court to acquit the defendant as the prosecution could not establish its case against his client.
He argued that the case of prosecution was full of contradictions. He said the depositions of the prosecution witnesses were contradictory to each other.
According to him, the confessional statement of the accused was the result of torture by the police.
The defence counsel contended that his client’s name was Naveedul Hassan, while the accused in the FIR was named Naveed. He argued that it was the case of mistaken identity as his client was the namesake of the accused named in the FIR.
The prosecutor submitted that the HMA men were also involved in hatching a conspiracy to blow up the president’s motorcade within the limits of Airport police.
According to the prosecution, one of the absconding accomplice of the Aalmi men, Habibullah Khattak, was given Rs400,000 by the Aalmi leaders and he brought explosives and other weapons in a truck from the upcountry.
It was alleged that accused Jamil was allegedly given Rs85,000 for purchasing a Suzuki pick-up, which was laden with the explosives. The vehicle was parked near a shop at the Falak Naz Arcade, and accused Kamran had the remote control.
However, it was alleged that explosive-laden vehicle did not blow up, though accused Kamran, who had positioned himself at a petrol pump near Star Gate on Sharea Faisal pushed the remote control button several times. He contended that later the accused used the same explosive-laden vehicle in the bombing of the US Consulate.
According to the charge-sheet, accused Sharib had stuffed the vehicle with the explosives, and accused Naveed and Jamil allegedly assembled explosive devise and its remote control.
The Aalmi chief and his deputy were earlier sentenced to death.
