KARACHI, Aug 20: An anti-terrorism court on Monday recorded the statement of the former judicial magistrate, Malir, Qazi Farid Ahmed, as a prosecution witness in a conspiracy case for the assassination of President General Pervez Musharraf.

Ghulam Ali A. Samtio of the ATC-1, who is conducting the trial in the Central Prison, fixed Sept 4 for recording the statements of other prosecution witnesses in the case.

In his statement, Qazi Farid Ahmed who is currently serving as Senior Civil Judge, South, said the accused were produced in his court on July 17, 2002, and they had confessed committing the crime. He said they recorded their statements in a peaceful atmosphere.

The judge asked the Special Public Prosecutor Niamat Ali Randhawa to produce other prosecution witnesses on the next date of the trial.

The court had indicted Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Hanif alias Ayub, Mohammad Ashraf, Waseem Akhtar, Mohammad Jamil and Arsalan alias Sharif when the accused had pleaded not guilty on July 14.

Later, the court recorded the statements of three witnesses Inspector Mohammad Hussain Khaskheli, Mohammad Yahya and Mohammad Yaseen on July 24.

The accused are stated to be leaders and workers of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi. Co-accused Mohammad Jamil, Aamir, Naveedul Hasan and Habib Kamran are still at large.

According to the prosecution, accused Waseem Akhtar, a Rangers inspector, was tasked with giving information about General Musharraf’s arrival in the city.

It was alleged that Kamran, who had positioned himself at a petrol station near the Star Gate on Sharea Faisal, pushed the remote-control button several times but the vehicle did not blow up. The accused had allegedly rented out the shop in a fake name and accused Aamir used to sit in it.

According to the charge-sheet, Sharib had stuffed the vehicle with explosives and Naveed and Jamil had assembled the explosive device and its remote control.

It was alleged that the Rangers official had given information regarding the arrival of the president, and Mohammad Hanif, Imran, Jamil, Naveed, Aamir and Sharib had positioned themselves near the Awami Markaz to ascertain if the president’s motorcade had been blown up.

According to the prosecution, the Aalmi leaders during interrogation confessed that they wanted to kill President Musharraf for his anti-Taliban and pro-US policies.

The accused were once indicted by ATC Judge Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi on April 24, 2003. The court had awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment to Imran, Mohammad Hanif and Mohammad Ashraf on Oct 11, 2003. They were also fined Rs200, 000 each and in case of non-payment they had to undergo an additional one-year imprisonment. The court had acquitted Waseem, Sharib, Naveed and Arsalan by giving them the benefit of doubt.

They had appealed to the High Court of Sindh on Nov 10, 2006 against the verdict. On their appeal, a two-member bench of the SHC comprising Justice Rehmat Hussein Jaffery and Yaseen Abbasi transferred the case to Ghulam Ali A. Samtio of the ATC-1 for retrial.