KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Monday acquitted three men, said to be associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), for lack of evidence in a case pertaining to the targeted killing of three clerics in 2013.

Mufti Abdul Majeed Deenpuri, Mufti Mohammad Saleh and Maulana Hassan Ali Shah were assassinated in a targeted attack in broad daylight near the Nursery flyover on Sharea Faisal on Jan 31, 2013.

Four suspects were arrested and charged with the offence. Their trial took place in the judicial complex inside the Karachi central prison.

On Monday, the ATC-XX acquitted three of the four accused — Syed Haider Ali alias Policewala, Asghar alias Kaka Banda and Wajahat alias Chikna — and directed prison authorities to release them forthwith if their custody was not required in any other case.

The ATC sentences a fourth man to life in prison

The judge observed that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges of premeditated murder, abatement, sharing common intention and terrorism against the three men.

However, the judge sentenced the fourth accused — Syed Ali Hassaan Zaidi — to life imprisonment on charges of premeditated murder and terrorism.

According to the prosecution, armed men had sprayed a vehicle with bullets on Sharea Faisal, killing three clerics travelling in it.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with the Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Tipu Sultan police station.

The prosecution examined 12 witnesses, including an eyewitness.

In their statements under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code, all the four men had denied the allegations levelled against them by the prosecution and pleaded innocence.

No crime weapon, incident’s footage produced

The defence counsel — Latifuddin Pasha and Abid Zaman — submitted that their clients had nothing to do with the allegations levelled by the prosecution, which had miserably failed to produce evidence to establish their role in the commission of alleged offences.

They said that Rangers personnel had arrested their clients and later handed over their custody to the police which falsely framed them in the present case.

They argued that the prosecution had failed to produce any weapon used in the crime, which was a crucial piece of evidence in order to establish any role of the accused with the alleged offence.

They contended that the prosecution had claimed that an eyewitness had identified Zaidi before a judicial magistrate and in his statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC stated that he saw Zaidi at the time of the incident, but he did not depose before the trial court. Therefore, his evidence was not “confidence inspiring” to lead to the conviction, they argued.

They counsel further argued that except Zaidi three other detained men were not produced before a judicial magistrate for an identification parade which was a mandatory legal requirement.

Secondly, they argued that the first investigating officer of the case, who passed away later, had claimed to have video footage of the incident wherein their clients could be clearly seen. However, no such video footage was produced in court.

Special Public Prosecutor for the Rangers Mushtaq Jahangiri submitted that the prosecution had enough evidence available on the record to connect the detained accused with the commission of the crime.

He argued that an eyewitness, Zahoor, had identified accused Zaidi before the judicial magistrate during an identification parade while the other evidence also successfully established the involvement of remaining three accused.

He added that the judicial magistrate who had conducted the identification parade and recorded statement of the eyewitness had also deposed before the trial court.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2018