KARACHI, Oct 11: Four activists of the Sunni Tehreek, prosecuted for forming unlawful assembly and torching a public vehicle, were acquitted by an anti-terrorism court as the prosecution failed to bring any incriminating evidence against them.

Judge Syed Zakir Hussain of the ATC-1 acquitted Muahmmed Salman alias Lamboo, Muhammed Naeem, Muhammed Kamran alias Kamu and Muhammed Faisal alias Cheetah, who were tried for the offence under section 147, 148, 149, 427 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The FIR (61/2001) of the case was registered on June 14, this year with the Eidgah police against the unknown culprits on the complaint of Akhtar Muhammad, the driver of the burnt Mazda minibus (JE-9053).

The four accused, already arrested in another case by the Garden police, were later arrested in this case.

The case of the prosecution collapsed when it failed to produce the complainant and the two eye-witnesses, mentioned in the charge-sheet, for the reason that “they are reportedly not available on their last known address and they have shifted to some unknown place”.

The investigation officer of the case submitted before the court that he was unable to produce the eye-witnesses, who had earlier identified the four accused before a judicial magistrate in an identification parade.

As far as the evidence of other witnesses, the IO admitted that their evidence was on the formal aspects of the case.

Special public prosecutor Abdul Waheed closed the side while stating that the case mainly depended on the evidence of the eye-witnesses and the formal evidence could hardly be able to help out the prosecution.

Since there was no incriminating evidence against the accused, they were not even put to any examination by the court, which proceeded to decide the case by way of the judgement in progress.

DRUG SMUGGLERS: The special Anti-narcotics court (ANC), headed by Judge Ali Nawaz Pirzada, sentenced three members of an international gang of the smugglers to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 14 years each.