KARACHI: The prosecution has requested an antiterrorism court to reopen trial against detained convict Saad Aziz in a case about attempt on the life of American educationist Debra Lobo in 2015.

Saad Aziz, alias Tin Tin, along with his four accomplices, has been charged with shooting at and wounding Ms Lobo, the vice principal of Karachi’s Jinnah Medical and Dental College in April 2015.

According to the prosecution, Ms Lobo was on her way to her residence in the Defence Housing Authority in a car when the attack took place. Although she survived the attack, Ms Lobo received two bullet wounds on her hand and face.

During an identification parade conducted by a judicial magistrate on June 27, 2015, an eyewitness had rightly picked out the main accused Saad Aziz as primary shooter.

The ATC-XVI judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, had reserved the verdict in the case after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

However, the assistant prosecutor general moved an application arguing that additional evidence was available which needed to be recorded and asked the court to reopen the trial.

In May, main suspect Saad Aziz had testified before the court, wherein he had denied his associated with any militant outfit, as the police investigators claimed that he had been inspired by the Islamic State (IS) militant group and was associated with Al Qaeda.

He had further deposed that he did not even know Debra Lobo before the incident, adding that the personnel of the law enforcement agencies in plainclothes had picked him up from his house on May 18, 2015.

The accused deposed that law enforcers showed his arrest after a fake encounter in Gulshan-i-Maymar on May 20, 2015.

Aziz deposed that an alleged witness, Javed, had identified him as one of the attackers during an identification parade before a judicial magistrate, adding that later Javed kept visiting the office of the Counter-Terrorism Department.

The accused testified that the law enforcers had already shown his face to Javed, who even sat with him in the vehicle when he was being taken to the court for the identification parade.

Aziz, a business graduate from a prestigious local institution, along with his other accomplices was handed over to the military authorities in January 2016 to face trial before military courts in 18 cases, including the Safoora Goth bus carnage, murder of Sabeen Mahmud, killing of policemen, attempted murder and carrying explosive substances and illicit weapons.

The military court had sentenced Saad Aziz, Tahir Minhas, Asadur Rehman, Mohammad Azhar Ishrat and Hafiz Nasir Ahmed to death in May 2016 in these cases.

Later, the convicts were handed back to jail authorities to face trial in other cases pending before the antiterrorism courts.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2018