ISLAMABAD: Six more British prosecution witnesses, including three eyewitnesses, recorded their statements in the Dr Imran Farooq murder case before the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Tuesday through a video link from the United Kingdom.

According to the first eyewitness, a neighbour of Dr Farooq, the slain leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, she saw a man hitting Dr Farooq with a brick. When she came out of her house, she found Dr Farooq lying on the ground.

While the eyewitness was not sure about the number of the assassins, she said that she could confirm that at least one man attacked Dr Farooq. According to her, all this happened in a couple of minutes.

The second eyewitness, a teacher by profession, testified that she saw the assassin from a window of her house. She said that the incident occurred right in front of her house.

She said that the assassin appeared to be of 30 years of age, about five-and-a-half feet tall and was wearing a baseball cap and a long coat. “At first glance the assassin looked like a sanitary worker,” the teacher said.

She said the assassin shouted at Dr Farooq and then attacked him. Dr Farooq started crying and groaning, she added.

She said that at that moment she thought of her own security and then rushed to her kitchen. She then called the police and informed them about the incident. “Police reached the crime scene and evacuated me and my children from the house,” she added.

ATC to continue recording statements of British prosecution witnesses through video link today

She told the court that the police also took her help in preparing sketches of the suspected killers.

The third eyewitness told the court that he was playing volleyball near the street and saw a man grappling with Dr Farooq and another attacking him with a knife.

Intelligence analyst Jonathan Bond, police officer Paul Hallman and Detective Constable James also recorded their statements.

According to the investigators, the suspects had bought the knife, which had been imported from China, at a departmental store.

On Monday, fingerprint expert Ann Cunningham had testified that fingerprints of an accused — Mohsin Ali — were found on the knife used in the assassination of Dr Farooq.

The court has so far recorded statements of 11 out of 20 witnesses through the video link. The recording of statements would continue on Wednesday (today), which is a public holiday, since the prosecution has arranged testimony of the British prosecution witnesses from Feb 3 to 7.

The court would record statements of two witnesses — taxi driver Moinuddin and Mohammad Akbar, the landlord of the house where Dr Farooq was living as a tenant.

In December, Detective Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan Police Service Staurt Greenaway had personally appeared before ATC judge Shahrukh Arjumand and testified in the murder case. He had said the code name of Dr Farooq’s murder case was “Operation HASTOR” and that being the head of the investigation team he had examined all aspects of the incident to ascertain the truth and that all the evidence collected during the course of investigation was in his custody.

He produced the original map of the crime scene, post-mortem and forensic reports, CCTV footage of the place of the incident, murder weapons, fingerprints of the accused persons, their passports, details of bank accounts, record related to enrolment of accused Mohsin Ali in the London Academy of Management Sciences (Lams) and his emails.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2020