KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court reserved on Tuesday its order on an application seeking transfer of a DHA shootout case to a regular court till Sept 2.

Salman Abro, son of a senior superintendent of police, along with police guards of his father has been booked for allegedly killing his 18-year-old classmate Suleman Lashari and wounding his private guard after breaking into the victim’s house on the night of May 8 in the Defence Housing Authority.

The main suspect also sustained wounds and one of his five guards was killed in the exchange of fire.

Judge Saleem Raza Baloch of the ATC-III reserved the order on the transfer application for pronouncement after rehearing arguments from both sides.

The court had also reserved the order on same application on July 17, but on the previous hearing it allowed a request of the defence counsel to reargue the plea.

The defence lawyer, Abdul Razzaq, moved an application under Section 23 (power to transfer cases to regular courts) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and contended that the offence did not attract the relevant section of the ATA since the incident took place inside the house. He argued that investigating officer dishonestly incorporated the section of the ATA into the case.

He submitted that the main suspect was also underage and asked the court to send the case to a sessions court.

The public prosecutor, Abdul Maroof, opposed the plea and argued that as per rules laid down by higher judiciary, it were not the place and time, but the manner and impact of the offence that mattered to ascertain the jurisdiction of a case, and contended that the offence had left a fearful impact on society and created insecurity as it was extensively covered by the media.

He maintained that it was evident from the FIR, circumstances and other available evidence that the case fell within the jurisdiction of the anti-terror law. The counsel for the complainant adopted the arguments of the prosecutor.

Meanwhile, the complainant informed the judge that despite a court order he and his family was still without security. The court asked the assistant inspector general of legal branch of police to arrange security for the complainant party and verify as to whether protection was provided as directed by the court and sought a compliance report till next hearing.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2014