July 23, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 19, 1429

KARACHI, July 22: The district and sessions judge, Central, Soofia Latif, on Tuesday directed the Sindh home department to constitute a police team and dispatch it to Mansehra to recover the girls allegedly kidnapped by their uncle.

While disposing of an application filed by the mother of the two kidnapped girls, Zainab, 11, and, Sara, 8 for their recovery, the judge also directed the DPO Mansehra to cooperate and coordinate with the police team and asked the police to recover the detained girls and arrest the kidnappers, and to submit a report in the court within 10 days.

Earlier, the applicant, Yasmeen, stated in the application that her daughters were kidnapped by their uncle, Shah Tareen, following a jirga decision.

The application said that Shah Tareen got married to Jannat against her parents’ will in their native town in district Mansehra. To settle the dispute between the two families, a jirga asked Mr Tareen to hand over his nieces to the aggrieved party in compensation.

Subsequently, he allegedly kidnapped the two girls and handed them over to a jirga member, Sanober, in Karachi.

In the final arguments, the applicant’s counsel said that Shah Tareen had kidnapped both the girls after a jirga decision that was illegal and immoral and the respondents in their reply admitted that the jirga had ordered them to hand over both the girls to the aggrieved party and pleaded to lodge an FIR under Section 12 of Hudood Ordinance against Shah Tareen and members of the jigra nominated in the application.

He also requested the court to appoint an investigation officer of SSP rank to thoroughly conduct a probe into the matter and grant him the authority to recover the detained girls from the NWFP or any other part of the country.

The counsel for Shah Tareen and Sanober submitted that their clients did not kidnap the girls as their father had himself taken both the girls back to Mansehra.

Eelier, the court had ordered the SHO of Gulberg police station and the SSP to recover the girls and arrest their kidnappers. However, the police produced Shah Tareen and Sanober in court and told the judge that the kidnapped girls could not be recovered from them.

Hearing against terror suspects put off

The additional district and sessions judge-II, Central, adjourned till July 29 the hearing of a case registered against five suspected terrorists arrested on the eve of Ashura due to the absence of witnesses.

Earlier, the court had indicted five suspects on charges of possessing illegal weapons and explosive substances and for planning to carry out attacks on mourning processions during Ashura.

They had pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case. The court had summoned all the prosecution witnesses. However, they did not turn up. The judge re-issued notices to the witnesses directing them to appear in court on the next hearing.

According to the prosecution, five suspected terrorists, Syed Mohammed Waseem alias Imran, Mohammed Aijaz alias Abdul Rehman, Jamil Ahmed alias Wazir Akbar, Mohammed Hamid alias Qasim, and the would-be suicide bomber, Aziz Ahmed, alias Mohammed Khan, were arrested by the CID police on January 19 from North Karachi. The suspects were allegedly planning to carry out suicide attacks on the processions during Ashura. The suspected terrorists have moved bail applications in the court, which would be taken up on Wednesday.

Kidnap and murder case

An anti-terrorism court adjourned till July 23 the hearing of a case pertaining to the kidnap and murder of a 21-year-old man.

The defence counsel cross-examined the investigation officer on Tuesday and the judge, Abdul Ghafoor Memon, of ATC-II, who is conducting the trial put off the hearing till Tuesday to record the statements of the accused.

According to the prosecution, the police found the body of a young man on February 14 near the Premier College from the limits of the North Nazimabad police station.

On Feb 15, the deceased was identified as Kamal, 21, son of Abdul Haq. After initial investigations, however, the police on Feb 16 arrested the accused. The charge-sheet said that the deceased, Kamal, was said to be fond of the daughter of Abu Alkalam and wanted to marry her.

However, the girl’s family opposed the matrimonial alliance, which led to many disputes between both the families. On Feb 13, the accused along with his son, Abdul Razzaq, and a relative, Mahjil Hussain, killed Kamal and dumped his body near Premier College, it added. Mahjil Hussain has been declared absconder in the case. The police registered a case (FIR No81/08) under Section 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. Mahjil Hussain has been declared absconder in the case.