KARACHI, Nov 6: Eleven out of total 35 paroled undertrial prisoners had been acquitted in 13 different cases by trial courts, it emerged on Tuesday.

Sources told Dawn that eight paroled UTPs were acquitted by trial courts, while the Arbab Rahim-led provincial government withdrew four cases against three other paroled UTPs.

They said that those acquitted by the courts were Noor Ahmed alias Aamir son of Kalay Khan, Abdul Saboor son of Fajar Ali, Zulfiqar Ahmed son of Fazal Din, Fayyaz Ahmed son of Abdul Ghaffar, Dil Mohammad son of Abdul Karim, Asif son of Abdul Aziz, Abu Bakar Siddiq alias Kalia son of Kaley Mian and Mohammad Jahangir son of Qamaruddin.

Six of them were acquitted in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007 while cases against Saeed Ahmed, Mohammad Akram and Sher Mohammad were withdrawn by the provincial government, said the sources.

The sources said that UTP Noor Ahmed was arrested by the Korangi police in a murder case (FIR 63/1996) and remanded in judicial custody on Feb 26, 1996. He was released on parole on Aug 7, 2003 along with 13 other UTPs including Abdul Saboor, Mohammad Akram, Zulfiqar Ahmed, Dil Mohammad and Sher Mohammad.

The sources said that Saboor was arrested by the Garden police in a case of illegal weapon’s possession (FIR 66/1999) and was sent to judicial custody on April 8, 1999, while Fayyaz was booked in a murder case (FIR 279/1998) in 1998 by the Sharifabad police and sent to prison on Jan 23, 2002.

They said that Fayyaz Ahmed was the first among 35 UTPs who was released on parole on July 18, 2003. The sources said 24 UTPs were later paroled in August, three in September and seven were released in November while none was paroled in October 2003.

The sources said that UTPs were initially released on parole for a brief period but later their parole was extended till Dec 29, 2005.

Prosecutor General Sindh (PGS) Shahdat Awan held a meeting of district prosecutors and special public prosecutors of anti-terrorism courts (ATCs) for a second day to follow cases of absconding paroled UTPs as directed by the Supreme Court in its order on the proceedings of implementation of the suo motu case on targeted killings in Karachi.

The sources said that the PGS office had so far received police files of 43 cases and district attorneys had moved applications to the concerned trial courts for seeking certified copies of as many as 62 known cases against the paroled UTPs.

They said the PGS office was expected to complete its homework on the cases of paroled UTPs by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor general submitted a report on the Ashura bomb blast case to the monitoring judge of the Supreme Court for ATCs in Sindh.

As many as 42 people were killed and 122 suffered injuries in the massive roadside blast near Light House on the M.A Jinnah Road on Dec 28, 2009.

The report said that two accused, Mohammad Shukaib alias Adil son of Mohammad Mudassir Farooqi and Murtaza alias Imran alias Abbas alias Shakeel, who were arrested in 2010 in other cases by the Mauripur police and Sir Syed Town police had disclosed their involvement in the blast.

According to report, the two accused escaped from custody on June 19, 2010 when they were brought to the city court for production before a judicial magistrate in a case registered against them by the ACLC, Gizri.

The report said that since the accused were reported untraceable, the trial court ordered to keep the case on dormant file till the arrest of the absconding accused.