ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) of Rawalpindi on Saturday acquitted five people of charges of murdering a constable.

ATC Judge Abdul Rahim absolved Imtiaz Ahmed Butt, Riaz Ahmed Butt, Shair Zaman, Qamar Zeb and Lehrasib Khan from murder for want of evidence as the prosecution had failed to prove charges.

All the five accused were booked under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) for murdering constable Mohammad Mazhar in Kotli Sattian. The police had registered FIR on the same day on March 23 last year against unknown persons.

The accused were arrested later on.

The identification parade was held in Adiala jail.

However, the defence counsel, Maulana Wajihullah, during the course of arguments, adopted before the court that the identification parade was conducted in violation of the guidelines provided by the recent judgements of the Supreme Court.

He said instead of conducting identification parade of the accused one by one, the investigating team should have lined up all the accused in Adiala jail for joint identification. He said the cross examination of the accused was also in contradiction of material facts.

The counsel pointed out that the report of the Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory on pistol and empty shells also favoured to the accused persons.

The prosecution on the other hand insisted that the evidence was sufficient to establish guilt of the accused persons.

The judge Rahim, however, giving the benefit of the doubt to the accused and acquitted them.

Ghulam Murtaza Satti, the legal heir of slain constable Mazhar while talking to Dawn said that police deliberately left loopholes in the investigation which ultimately benefitted the accused.

He said he would file an appeal against the acquittal of the accused before the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2019