KARACHI : Accused to record statement on 25th: Plot to assassinate president
By A Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 8: An anti-terrorism court on Monday closed the prosecution side when Special Public Prosecutors Mohammad Mazhar Qayyum and Niamat Ali Randhawa said the deposition of seven prosecution witnesses was enough to prove the 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 Oct 25 for recording the statement of the accused.
Earlier recording his statement as a prosecution witness, Inspector Mohammad Tariq had said the accused, Waseem Akhtar, had been arrested in his presence. Identifying the accused, he said he was a member of the police party.
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.
On July 24, the court had recorded statements of three witnesses Inspector Mohammad Hussain Khaskheli, Mohammad Yahya and Mohammad Yaseen.
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 had been produced in his court on July 17, 2002, and had confessed of having committed the crime.
All the accused reportedly belong to 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, had been tasked with giving information about General Musharraf’s arrival in the city.Kamran, who had allegedly 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.Rangers’ official had allegedly leaked out the 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 and had also been 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 Sindh High Court on Nov 10, 2006 against the verdict. On their appeal, a two-member bench of the SHC comprising Justices Rehmat Hussein Jaffery and Yaseen Abbasi transferred the case to Ghulam Ali Samtio of the ATC-1 for retrial.
