June 01, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1429

RAWALPINDI, May 31: A medical board of the district headquarters hospital formed to conduct the medical examination of Aitzaz Shah, allegedly involved in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, submitted on Saturday before the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), Rawalpindi, that the accused was a juvenile.

Judge Chaudhary Habibur Rehman directed the investigation officer to submit a fresh charge-sheet of Aitzaz Shah during the next hearing of the case.

The medical board submitted its report after Aitzaz Shah’s lawyer had sought a separate trial under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000, saying that he was less than 18 years of age at the time of his arrest.

According to the birth certificate of the accused submitted with his application, Aitzaz was born on April 19, 1992, and his birth was registered in Karachi.

The special public prosecutor had argued during the last hearing that documentary evidence was not sufficient to establish the age of the accused and demanded a medical test to determine his age.It may be mentioned that accused Aitzaz was charged only with concealing facts about the criminal conspiracy in the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

A joint investigation team has already submitted a charge-sheet against five people arrested in the case and five others who are yet to be arrested.

The police officer investigating two other suicide attacks, including R.A. Bazaar and Civil Lines cases told the court that one of the accused did not have any property which could be confiscated.

The court has already formally declared Baitullah Mehsud and his four other associates for their alleged involvement in the assassination of Ms Bhutto.

The ATC judge had ordered confiscation of all moveable and non-moveable property of all the accused in the case.

He had issued the orders after two sub-inspectors of the City Police Station said they had pasted ‘wanted’ posters of Baitullah Mehsud and Ikramullah, the second would-be suicide bomber on Dec 27 last year, both belonging to South Waziristan, Abadur Rehman, Abdullah alias Saddam of Mohmand Agency and Faiz Mohammad alias Kaskat of Swabi, a student of the Madres-sah Haqqania in Akora Khattak.

The judge also put off the hearing in the bail applications of the two other accused Sher Zaman and Abdul Rasheed to take them up on the next hearing date.

Rafaqat and Hasnain allegedly involved in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and two other suicide attacks one in R.A. Bazaar and the other in Civil Lines police area last year were also present in the court. The judge adjourned the hearing till June 21.