ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Islamabad on Friday asked the Federal Investigation Agency’s prosecutors to produce three officials of the British Counter Terrorism-Command (CTC) on Nov 6 to testify in Dr Imran Farooq’s murder case.

ATC Judge Shahrukh Arjumand also allowed the investigation officer to probe the suspects already detained in the murder case to interrogate them further in the light of the evidence recently received from the UK Central Authority.

The three officials of the CTC, also known as SO15 which is a Specialist Operations branch within London’s Metropolitan Police Service, scheduled to appear on Nov 6, are the custodian of the record related to the murder case.

During the brief proceedings, the prosecution informed the court that there was no need for re-indictment of the accused as the evidence received from the UK government had further strengthened the case registered against them.

On Dec 5, 2015, the FIA had registered a case against MQM chief Altaf Hussain and other party leaders for their alleged involvement in the murder of Dr Imran Farooq.

The ATC indicted the accused under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997, related to the murder, abetment and hatching a conspiracy to kill.

Two of the suspects, Khalid Shamim and Syed Mohsin Ali, recorded their confessional statements before the magistrate, but later retracted. Another suspect, Moazzam Ali, has not recorded his confessional statement in the case so far.

Dr Farooq, a senior leader of the MQM, was murdered outside his home in London in 2010.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2019