February 05, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 26, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 4: Additional district and sessions judge (East) Rana Zaki Shamsi on Monday adjourned the hearing of a case pertaining to the murder of a 12-year-old boy till Feb 23.

The judge also reissued notices to all prosecution witnesses asking them to appear in court and record their statements on the next date of hearing.

Earlier, the court had indicted Hafiz Manzoor Ahmed, Moazzin of Masjid-i-Aqsa situated in Shah Faisal Colony. He was charged with killing the boy, Mohammad Anas, who was found hanged in the mosque.

The accused through his counsel moved an application for bail which would be taken up on Feb 9.

According to the prosecution, Mohammad Anas, a student, was found hanged in the mosque on Oct 30, 2007. Police suspected the boy was murdered.

Hailing from Muzaffargarh, the deceased was staying with his maternal grandfather, Qari Abdul Rahman, the teacher of the madressah adjacent to the mosque.

Shah Faisal Colony police had registered a case (FIR No. 294/2007) against Hafiz Manzoor Ahmed and arrested him on Nov 1. Later, the court remanded him in judicial custody.

Judicial Magistrate (East) Maqbool Ahmed Memon has already recorded the confessional statement of the accused.

Investigation Officer of the case SI Ghulam Mustafa Shah stated in the charge-sheet on Nov 15 that the accused had tried to subject the deceased to sexual abuse.

Accident case

Additional district & sessions judge (Central) Nelofer Shahnawaz on Monday recorded the statement of the complainant, SI Zafar Iqbal, in a case pertaining to a bus accident in which two college girls were killed and several other people injured.

Nida Afzaal and Ravia Beenish, intermediate students of the APWA Collage, Karimabad, were killed and many other people injured when a bus of route number 5C bearing registration number JA 5983 hit them on Feb 19, 2002. Driver and owner of the bus were booked and arrested.

SI Zafar Iqbal told the court that the two girls had died when he arrived at the scene of the accident. He stated that he rushed the injured people to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and returned to the scene to record the statements of witnesses. He further stated that he had arrested bus driver Mohammad Munawwar and owner Mohammad Ibrahim.

They were later released on bail.

After recording the SI’s statement, the court re-issued summons for ASI Irfan of the Sharifabad police station and the injured students, Madeeha, Shahida and Saher Afshan, asking them to record their statements on Feb 13.

The defence counsel will also cross-examine the complainant on the next hearing.