KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court remanded on Wednesday two suspects in prison after the police informed the court that the whereabouts of an eyewitness in the case pertaining to the murder of Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Zahra Shahid were unknown.

Mohammad Rashid, aka Master, and Zahid Abbas Zaidi have been arrested in connection with the murder of the senior leader of the PTI, who was gunned down on May 18 last year inside her home in Defence Housing Authority.

On Oct 13, the police got an extension in the physical remand of the suspects by submitting that an eyewitness had identified them before a magistrate during an identification parade and the second witness remained absent on medical grounds and he would also appear before the magistrate to identify them on Oct 14.

However, the investigating officer reproduced the suspects after their remand ended and contended that the second witness did not turn up to identify them and remained untraceable.

Judge Saleem Raza Baloch of the ATC-III sent the suspects to prison on judicial remand till Oct 21 and told the IO that he could approach the court after taking no-objection certificates from the courts concerned to get the custody of the suspects for an identification parade if the witness came forward to recognise them.

The police had arrested Rashid in illicit weapons case on Sept 25 and said that during interrogation he disclosed his involvement in the present case while the other suspect was arrested on Oct 2.

A case 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 at the Gizri police station.

Junaid Bukhari, Tariq Nawab and Asif, aka Ganja, were shown absconders in the case.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2014