KARACHI, Nov 2: The Sindh government notified on Thursday the jail trial of US diplomat killing case against two workers of Al Qaeda and Allama Hasan Turabi murder case against five activists of the banned Lashmar-i-Jhangvi.
Official sources said the decision to hold the jail trial has been taken by the provincial authorities as a security measures.
Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the Anti-terrorism Court, who is trying the Al Qaeda men in the diplomat killing case, put off the hearing till Nov 8.
The judge also directed the superintendent of the Central Prison to make necessary arrangements for the trial after the official notification was placed on court record.
Two Al Qaeda activists – Usman Ghani and Anwarul Haq -- are being tried for masterminding suicide car bombing to kill US diplomat. Four people were killed on March 2 this year when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into the diplomat’s vehicle yards away from the US consulate-general around 9:05am.
Consulate official David Foy, his Pakistani driver Iftikhar and Lance Naik Zafar of Rangers were killed instantly. The blast that took place in a narrow lane between the five-star Marriott Hotel and Naval Surgery Hospital also left over 50 others wounded.
Mohammed Ameen alias Khalid Shaheen alias Abdullah, Sultan Mehmood alias Saifullah alias Muslim, Mohammed Rehman alias Mani, Mohammed Ashfaq Qureshi and Akbar Khan have been arrested in the Allama Hasan Turrabi murder case. Mufti Ilyas, Hazrat Ali, Khalid, Ali Hasan and Sohail Ahmed Siddiqui were shown absconders in the final charge-sheet.
Allama Turabi, who was also the Sindh vice-president of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, and his young nephew were killed on July 14 when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the religious leader’s Gulshan-i-Iqbal house.
Three policemen Azhar Hussain, Fakhar Hussain, Mohammad Rashid were injured in the attack. A woman, Ms Noreen, was also struck by pellets from the explosives as she hung the washing out on her flat’s balcony. The severed head of the clean-shaven suicide bomber, later identified as Abdul Karim Bengali, was also found lying close to the slain leader’s house.
Mohammed Ameen, Sultan Mehmood and Mohammed Rehman were arrested by the police on July 25 in Old Muzaffarabad Colony, Quaidabad.
Both the cases of Allama Turrabi have been assigned for trial to the ATC-3, headed by Judge Saghir Hussain Zaidi.
Court sources told Dawn that there were six cases pending trial before Judge Bhatti.
Judge Bhatti had pronounced his last judgment a couple of days ago when he had sentenced two SSP activists to death for killing six Suparco employees.
