December 14, 2008	Sunday	Zilhaj 15, 1429

RAWALPINDI, Dec 13: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) here on Saturday rejected the application of five accused, involved in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, seeking copies of certain incriminating documents, and summoned some prosecution witnesses to record their statements on December 20.

ATC-I Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman, who has been conducting the trial in Adiala Jail, turned down the application of Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah, Abdul Rasheed, Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat Hussain who sought some documents incriminating them in the case.

The court also dismissed a separate application of Sher Zaman challenging his indictment for murder, claiming that he had only been accused by the investigators of concealing the plot to kill the PPP chairperson.

The accused had sought the attested copies of their statements under sections 161 (before police) and 164 (before a judicial magistrate), medico-legal report, compressed disk (CD) containing findings of an investigation of Scotland Yard, tape of the telephonic conversation of some militants recorded by intelligence agencies, statements of injured persons if any, recovery memo, map of the place of the incident and postmortem report of the deceased and initial medical report of the doctors who treated Benazir Bhutto in the hospital.

The prosecution lawyer, on the other hand, said the statements of the accused under sections 161 and 164 had been provided to them, while the remaining documents could not be made available. The accused, Sher Zaman, had challenged his indictment saying that the investigators had only charged him with concealing the December 27 terrorism plot but he had been charged with murder, attempted murder and using illegal explosive materials.

His lawyer Khurram Qureshi told mediapersons that he would challenge the decision of the ATC in the high court as his client had unlawfully been charged with the murder of the former prime minister.