January 27, 2008	Sunday	Muharram 17, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 26: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday adjourned the hearing in a kidnap case of two army personnel against the former chief minister of Balochistan, Akhtar Mengal.

Special Public Prosecutor Mazhar Qayyum told Dawn that the judge, Ahmed Nawaz Shaikh, adjourned the hearing till Feb 6 as defence counsel Wazeer Khoso was out of town and could not attend the hearing.

He said that the court would frame charges against Akhtar Mengal, who is the chief of Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal), on the next date of hearing.

According to the prosecution, Akhtar Mengal along with his four guards had kidnapped two army personnel Havaldar Qurban Hussain and Lance Naik Fayaz Ahmed on April 5, 2006, when they were performing intelligence duty. The accused, according to the prosecution, made the army men hostage in Mengal’s house in Darakhshan area and allegedly tortured them with the intention of killing them.

Later, the army personnel were released from captivity after police and Rangers besieged Mengal’s house. An FIR was registered against the BNP chief and his four employees at Darakhshan police station on the complaint of Havaldar Qurban Hussain.

Akhtar Mengal was declared a proclaimed offender but his four guards were arrested and tried by an ATC which convicted them on Dec 9, 2006. While sentencing them to an aggregate of 45 years in prison, the court also ordered confiscation of the property of Nasarullah Mengal, Ghulam Hyder Langah alias Chappar, Mehboob Ali Satti and Ghulam Qadir and imposed fines of Rs140,000 each.

Later, police arrested Mr Mengal and submitted a charge-sheet to the ATC.

US consulate case

The same court adjourned the hearing of a case against two Al Qaeda suspects – Anwarul Haq and Usman Ghani – who were being tried for masterminding a suicide car bombing to kill a US diplomat in Karachi in 2006.

Special Public Prosecutor Naimat Randhawa told Dawn that the court adjourned the proceedings till Jan 29 as one of the defence counsel M. Ilyas Khan could not appear in court.

Mr Randhawa said that he had submitted before court to conduct the hearing of the case speedily as the case was awaiting trial since long. The court fixed Jan 29 as the next date of hearing.

According to the prosecution, on March 2, 2006 a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a US diplomat David Foy’s vehicle yards away from the US consulate killing four people including the diplomat and leaving 50 others injured. The body of the suicide bomber, later identified as Mohammed Tahir, was also torn into pieces.

According to the investigators, the explosive-laden car was parked outside the naval establishment and when the convoy of the US official appeared, the bomber rammed his vehicle into the bullet-proof car. The vehicle flew up into the air before landing across a concrete barrier on the pavement of Marriot.

According to the charge-sheet, Mohammed Tahir, son of Raja Afzal, had left his Landhi house on March 2, 2006 after Fajr and later his family was informed about his death.On August 15, the investigation officer visited the house of the suicide bomber and recorded the statement of his father.

Raja Afzal told the investigator that his son had gone to Afghanistan for Jihad thrice and had also been imprisoned in Afghanistan.The father of the suicide bomber told the investigation officer that a man visited his house thrice after the disappearance of his son and gave him Rs5,000, Rs8,000 and Rs10,000 during his three visits. He said the same man contacted his other son, Raja Mohammed Idrees, who is a student at the Binori Town Madressah in July and told him that Tahir had been killed.

On Aug 18, the investigation officer recorded the statement of Idrees, who also supported the statement of his father.

The brother of the suicide bomber said he knew one of his brother’s friends, Usman, who had brought his letter to the family from Afghanistan during his detention there.