KARACHI: An antiterrorism court has awarded life imprisonment to a convict in a case pertaining to targeted killing of an officer of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) in 2013.

The ATC-II judge pronounced her verdict after recording evidence of witnesses and concluding arguments from both sides.

The judge convicted Shahid, alias Japani, and sentenced him to life in prison on two counts. He was charged with murdering Abdul Jabbar Mangi, an officer of the KDA in Landhi, and injuring his driver, Naeem Ahmed, at Korangi No 2 bus stop on Sept 27, 2013.

According to the prosecution, Mr Mangi along his driver was heading towards Defence Housing Authority from Korangi when two armed motorcyclists intercepted his car and opened fire on it. The both had received multiple bullet wounds and were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where the KDA officer died but his driver survived.

A case was registered under sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 against him at the Zaman Town police station.

During the trial, the prosecution examined nine witnesses.

The special public prosecutor argued that Shahid, alias Japani, was arrested on April 1, 2013 and a 30-bore pistol was seized from him with two live bullets.

He argued that the accused had confessed before three witnesses to having committed the crime by firing on KDA officer Abdul Jabbar Mangi. The prosecutor further argued that two empties recovered from the place of the incident were sent to the forensic science laboratory and the same had matched with the pistol seized from Shahid. Therefore, he pleaded that the accused was a habitual criminal and sought maximum punishment for him.

However, defence counsel Muhammad Hanif denied the allegations of the prosecution, arguing that his client had nothing to do with the alleged offence. He contended that the empties said to have been recovered from the crime scene were sent to the FSL for matching three months after the alleged offence was committed.

He added that the pistol allegedly recovered from his client had been foisted upon him, adding the weapon was shown to have been recovered from the accused on April 1, 2015 but the same was sent for forensic analysis on April 30, 2015.

The defence counsel alleged that the empties and the weapon had been managed by the prosecution. He mentioned that the accused while recording his statement under Section 324 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC) had produced a newspaper, which showed that he was arrested on April 4, 2014 by the Rangers.

He further contended that his client was already arrested and the weapon was foisted upon him, therefore, pleaded to the court to acquit him.

The eyewitness, who was the driver of the victim, testified that he fell unconscious after being fired upon by the attackers along with KDA officer Abdul Jabbar Mangi. He also affirmed that he had given his statement to the police under the Section 154 of the CrPC in hospital and the same bore his thumb impression on it.

The judge noted in its order that a newspaper dated April 4, 2015, showed that the Rangers had arrested accused Shahid, alias Japani in Korangi and his custody was given to the Zaman Town police, whereas in his statement the accused stated that he was arrested on March 17, 2015 from the Service Road 5 ½ Korangi, Karachi.

The judge observed that the court cannot rely on the news of newspaper from which no person or the news reporter of Ummat had been produced as witness to confirm the report or from whom he had taken the report. It noted that moreover the newspaper was dated April 4, 2015 while the accused claimed to have been arrested on March 17, 2015.

The judge also mentioned that the accused had also not produced any witness, not even from his family members, to depose that he was arrested on March 17, 2015 instead of April 1, 2015.

As per the prosecution witness, sub-inspector Waheed Awan, the accused had pointed out the place of incident where he had fired at Abdul Jabbar Mangi.

While convicting Shahid, the judge ordered that since the prosecution had delayed to send the empties and pistol used in the crime to the FSL and it had created mitigating circumstances, therefore, he was awarded the lesser sentence of punishment for life imprisonment in the murder and attempt to murder charge.

The judge further ordered that since the charge of terrorism also stood proved the convict was further sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life under the Section 7(ff) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2018