KARACHI, May 16: An anti-terrorism court put off on Wednesday the indictment of five leaders and workers of the outlawed Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi in a case pertaining to a plot to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf.
Judge Ghulam Ali A. Samtio of the ATC-1fixed May 25 for formally framing the charges on Aalmi chief Mohammed Imran, his deputy Mohammed Hanfi, and finance secretary Mohammed Ashraf, and two workers, Sharib Arsalan and Wasim Akhtar.
The judge put off the indictment of the defendants as Sharib and Wasim sought time from the court for engaging defence counsel. The three Aalmi leaders are being represented by Abdul Waheed Katpar.
The prosecution is represented by special public prosecutors Mazhar Qayyum and Naimat Ali Randhawa.
Earlier on October 18, 2003, the three Aalmi leaders were sentenced to 10-year imprisonment and the two workers were acquitted in the case by the then judge of the ATC-1, Aley Maqbool.
Judge Samtio is conducting the retrial of the Aalmi leaders and workers inside the Central Prison. The retrial of the Aalmi men was ordered by the Sindh High Court on November 10, 2006 on the appeal of the convicts against the trial court judgment.
The Aalmi men were charged with hatching a conspiracy to blow up the president’s motorcade in April 2002. According to the prosecution, a pick-up loaded with explosives was parked near a shop in Falaknaz Arcade on Sharea Faisal and the absconding accused, Kamran, was in possession of the remote control with the intention to blow up the explosives on arrival of the president’s motorcade on the spot.
It was alleged that Kamran had positioned himself at a petrol pump near Star Gate on Sharea Faisal. He pressed the remote control button several times but the vehicle did not explode, the prosecution claimed, adding that one Naveed had assembled the explosive device and its remote control.
