KARACHI, Oct 10: Another eyewitness on Thursday picked out a suspect as one of the alleged shooters in the Advocate Naimat Ali Randhawa murder case during an identification parade held before a judicial magistrate.

The suspect, Syed Kazim Abbas Rizvi, a Muttahida Qaumi Movement activist, was booked for the murder of Advocate Randhawa, a former prosecutor at an anti-terrorism court and a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s legal wing in Sindh.

The Rangers and police brought the suspect to the city courts in an armoured personnel carrier and produced him before the court of a magistrate for an identification parade with his face muffled amid tightened security, while the witness was also brought under heavy security arrangements. The media’s access to the court was blocked.

Judicial Magistrate (central) Asif Ahmed conducted the suspect’s identification parade after completing legal formalities. The suspect was lined up along with the dummies as court called the witnesses to identify him.

Court sources said that the eyewitness, whose identify was withheld for security reasons, rightly identified the suspect and assigned his role in the commissioning of the crime.

The eyewitness, who is said to be a roadside fruit vendor, deposed that he was present around the crime site when the incident took place and had seen that the suspect along with his accomplices was firing at the vehicle of the deceased, the sources added.

Earlier on Oct 5, an eyewitness had picked out the suspect in the case during an identification parade conducted by a judicial magistrate.

According to the prosecution, the slain advocate along with his son was returning home when their vehicle came under attack in North Nazimabad on the night of Sept 26. The attack left the lawyer dead and his son wounded.

The city police chief linked the advocate’s killing with the murder of TV journalist Wali Khan Babar, who had been attacked in Liaquatabad in January 2011, citing that the slain lawyer had been pursuing the case on behalf of the complainant side.

He also said that the suspect belonged to unit 178 of the MQM’s organisational structure and was detained during a joint action by the Rangers and police on the night of Sept 30 in Gizri.

He was produced on Oct 2 before an anti-terrorism court that remanded the suspect in police custody till Oct 18.

A case (FIR 280/13) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on a complaint of the deceased’s son at the North Nazimabad police station. The police named Noman, Salman and Rehan as absconders in the remand papers.

The police said that an unlicensed pistol was seized from the suspect at the time of his arrest. They said the weapon was used in the commissioning of the murder and booked him in a case (FIR 396/13) registered under Section 23-1 (A) of the Sindh Arms Ordinance.

Two identify suspected ASWJ leader’s killer

Two eyewitnesses on Thursday rightly picked out a suspect among dummies as the killer in a case pertaining to the murder of an Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat leader.

ASWJ spokesman Maulana Akbar Saeed Farooqui was gunned down in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on his way back home after attending a protest demonstration on Aug 28.

The police produced the suspect, Farhat Abbas Zaidi, before the court and judicial magistrate (east) Ghulam Murtaza conducted the identification parade.

Mohammad Abu Bakar and Hayatullah rightly picked out the suspect among the dummies and said that he opened fire on the ASWJ leader.A case (FIR No 443/2013) was lodged under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act at the Gulshan-i-Iqbal police station.

The suspect was arrested on Oct 7 and the following day an anti-terrorism court remanded him in police custody till Oct 21.

Meanwhile, the same court also conducted another identification parade on Thursday in which an eyewitness picked out a suspect in a policeman’s murder case.

Shujaat Hashmi was booked for allegedly killing head constable Zafar Iqbal near a mosque in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on July 20.