KARACHI, Sept 4: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday recorded the deposition of a police inspector, Mohammad Tariq, as a prosecution witness in a conspiracy case in which the plotters sought to assassinate President General Pervez Musharraf on April 26, 2002 in Karachi.
Judge Ghulam Ali Samtio of ATC-1, who is conducting the trial in the Central Prison, fixed Sept 11 for recording the statements of other prosecution witnesses in the case.
In his statement, Mohammad Tariq said that the accused, Waseem Akhtar, was arrested in his presence. He identified the accused and said he was a member of the police party.
The judge asked Special Public Prosecutors Niamat Ali Randhawa and Mohammad Mazhar Qayyum to produce the other prosecution witnesses on the next hearing.
The court had indicted Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Hanif alias Ayub, Mohammad Ashraf, Waseem Akhtar, Mohammad Jamil and Arsalan alias Sharib 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 court, on Aug 20, recorded the statement of a former judicial magistrate, Malir, Qazi Farid Ahmed, as a prosecution witness, who is currently serving as senior civil judge, south, Karachi.
In his statement, Qazi Farid Ahmed said the accused were produced in his court on July 17, 2002, and had confessed committing the crime. He said they recorded their statements in a peaceful atmosphere.
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, 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 Star Gate on Sharea Faisal, pushed the remote-control button several times but an explosives-laden vehicle did not blow up. The accused had allegedly rented out the shop in a fake name and Aamir used to sit in it.
According to the charge-sheet, Sharib had planted explosives in the vehicle 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-years 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 and Naveed by giving them the benefit of the 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 Samtio of the ATC-1 for retrial.
