HYDERABAD, July 13: The Anti-Terrorism Court, Hyderabad transferred a case pertaining to an armed attack on the vehicle of Syed Awais Muzaffar aka Tappi on May 11 to a sessions court in Thatta on an application of the counsel for defence. Defence counsel Mehmood Abbasi filed an application under Section 23 of the Anti-Terrrism Act, 1997 seeking shifting of the case to an ordinary court of Thatta on the grounds of jurisdiction.

The defence counsel argued before Judge Manazir Hussain Zaidi that the ATC had no jurisdiction to try suspect Yaqoob Kehar and Ali Akbar because the ATA sections were inserted later, after the registration of the FIR by CIA, Karachi.

He said that the memo of the place of incident showed that Mr Muzaffar hid behind a wall when he was fired upon but the memo showed that the wall did not have any marks of bullets. He said when the FIR was lodged no charges relating to terrorism were mentioned. However, Section 7 of the ATA was inserted after the inquiry was ordered to the CIA police, Karachi.

Special Public Prosecutor Nasir Durrani opposed the application.Suspects Yaqoob Kehar and Ali Akbar were produced in court in custody. Other suspects are on interim pre-arrest bail.