KARACHI: An eyewitness picked out two suspects said to be Muttahida Qaumi Movement activists in the murder case of two police officers during an identification parade before a judicial magistrate on Monday.

Obaid alias K2 and Nadir Shah along with their absconding accomplices have been booked for allegedly killing sub-inspectors Mohammad Rehan and Mohammad Nisar in Soldier Bazaar in March 2000.

They were among the dozens of suspects, including MQM leader Amir Khan, picked up by the Rangers in a pre-dawn raid on and around the MQM headquarters, Nine Zero, last month.

Amid tightened security, the police brought the suspects with their faces muffled before a magistrate to the city courts for the identification parade. The witness, too, was brought under heavy security arrangements.

Judicial Magistrate (east) Mohammad Suleman Buriro conducted the identification parade of the suspects after completing legal formalities. They were lined up along with the dummies as the court called the witness to identify them.

The eyewitness managed to rightly pick out the suspects among the dummies and identified them as the alleged shooters, court sources said.

The prosecution said that the complainant, a bother of one of the slain police officers, had named both the suspects and absconders Asif Danan, Javed Shah Puri, Abid, Shahid and Javed Akhtar Siddiqui in the FIR.

The complainant contended in the FIR that both victims took part in the Karachi operation of the 1990s and the nominated men had threatened to kill them.

Initially, the police booked the suspects along with 26 others in illicit weapons and explosive material cases. Later, both were also booked in the present case. Moreover, Obaid was shown arrested in many murder cases after the police claimed that he owned up to his involvement in most of the cases during questioning.

Meanwhile, an antiterrorism court on Monday extended the physical remand of both suspects in the same case till April 14.

The remand was extended for a day by Judge Saleem Raza Baloch of the ATC on a request of the police.

Another antiterrorism court extended physical remand of Obaid K2 for a day in a jail official murder case.

The suspect along with his detained and absconding accomplices has been booked for allegedly killing deputy superintendent of central prison Amanullah Khan Niazi, his brother Habibullah Niazi and three guards near Saddar in June 2006.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2015

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