KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Monday issued a warrant for the arrest of an assistant director of the Airport Security Force for failing to appear in court to record his testimony in the Karachi airport attack case.

Three accused — Sarmad Siddiqui, Asif Zaheer and Nadeem alias Burger alias Mullah — have been charged with allegedly providing logistical support, funds and weapons to around 10 attackers who stormed Karachi airport in June last year and were killed in a swift operation.

On a previous hearing, the court summoned the ASF official, Muhammad Iqbal, who had lodged the FIR of the case, with a direction to record his evidence in the case. However, he did not appear in court on Monday.

Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso of the ATC-I, who is conducting the trial inside the Karachi central prison, issued a bailable warrant for the arrest of the complainant till July 13.

According to the prosecution, around 10 heavily armed militants stormed Karachi airport on the night of June 8, 2014 and were killed by army commandos and personnel of other security forces during an operation that lasted about five hours.

Around 25 people, including personnel of the ASF, police and Rangers were also killed, it added.

The police claimed that the accused belonged to Al Qaeda and the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

TTP chief Fazlullah and its spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, who claimed the responsibility for the attack, were among the absconders.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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