KARACHI: Two key prosecution witnesses in the Arshad Pappu murder case turned hostile before an antiterrorism court on Wednesday by deviating from their earlier evidence.

Shahjehan Baloch, a Pakistan People Party lawmaker elected from Lyari, then Chakiwara SHO Javed Baloch, inspector Yousuf Baloch, Zubair Baloch, Zakir Dada and Abdul Rehman have been charged with alleged involvement in the murder of Arshad Pappu, the alleged leader of an infamous Lyari gang, his brother Yasir Arafat and their confidant Juma Shera in March 2013.

Read: Witness turns hostile in Arshad Pappu murder case

Police constables Haq Nawaz and Amir Hanif, who were shown as eyewitnesses in the case, had earlier deposed before a judicial magistrate that some police officers had picked up the victims and handed them over to the accused persons who killed them.

However, both witnesses deposed before the trial court that they had nothing to do with the case, alleging that their superiors had detained them and forced them to become witness.

The policemen testified that they appeared in the court of a judicial magistrate during the investigation of the case. However, they claimed that the magistrate had not recorded their testimonies under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code, but their signatures were taken on the already written statements.

Also read: Arshad Pappu murder case: Proclamation process against absconders ordered

The public prosecutor declared the witnesses hostile under the Qanun-i-Shahadat Order, 1984 for deviating from their previous statements recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC before a judicial magistrate and asked the court to allow him to question them.

The prosecutor said both witnesses in their statements before the magistrate said police officers Javed Baloch, Yousuf Baloch and Chand Khan Niazi had captured the slain men and handed them over to the accused including Zubair Baloch and Zakir Dada.

During cross-examination, the prosecutor asked the witnesses if they backtracked from their previous evidence because they had either patched up with the accused party or due to fear and insecurity. They replied in the negative.

Judge Akhlaq Hussain Larak of ATC-VII adjourned the hearing till May 5 for the evidence of remaining prosecution witnesses.

The banned Lyari Peoples Amn Committee chief, Uzair Jan Baloch, Noor Mohammad alias Baba Ladla, his brother Zahid Ladla, Asif Kana, Faisal Pathan, Yasir Pathan and the then Kalakot SHO Chand Khan Niazi had already been declared proclaimed offenders in the case.

According to the prosecution, Arshad Pappu with his brother, confidant and 10-year-old son had gone to attend the party of a friend in Defence Housing Authority on the night of March 16, 2013. The boy came home around midnight and informed his mother that around 20 men in two vehicles came to the flat in the DHA and took his father and the two others away.

The captives were killed after being subjected to torture and the bodies of the alleged gangster and his brother were thrown into manholes in Kalakot after being mutilated, it added and alleged that the crime was committed at the behest of Shahjehan Baloch, who was in jail in some other cases when the triple murder took place, it added.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (punishment for premeditated murder), 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 297 (trespassing on burial place, etc.), 392 (punishment for robbery), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Kalakot police station on a directive of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Arshad Pappu was booked in around 60 cases, but he was never convicted in any case since most of the key witnesses either did not turn up to testify against him or turned hostile before the courts. He was released in the middle of February 2012 from a prison in Balochistan following his acquittal in what appeared to be the last case against him pertaining to the murder of Faiz Mohammad aka Mama Faizu, a transporter and father of Uzair Jan.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2015

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