KARACHI: An antiterrorism court dismissed on Thursday the bail applications filed by four men charged with facilitating the murder of two Pak Sarzameen Party activists.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain, with eight detained and absconding party activists, has been booked for his alleged involvement in the killing of rival PSP workers Naeem Ramzan and Azhar Rehmatullah in a gun attack on the party’s office in Usmania Colony on Dec 23, 2018.

On Thursday, the matter came up before the ATC-XII judge, who is conducting trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison.

He pronounced his verdict on the bail applications moved by four accused — Zameeruddin, alias Shahzad Gold, Tanzeem Ahmed, Syed Waqas Hyder and Bisma Naz — through their defence counsel for grant of post-arrest bail.

After hearing arguments from the counsel for the parties, the judge wrote that though there was no role or allegation available in the contents of the FIR against the applicants, in their confessional statements recorded before a judicial magistrate co-accused Rehman, alias Shahrukh, and Mohsin, alias Shah, had disclosed the applicants’ role as being facilitators in the present case.

The MQM chief is among nine suspects booked in the case

According to the confessional statements, the judge noted that on the night of the incident accused Bisma Naz with her husband, Asad, alias Umar, Kashif Jameel, alias Zain, and Qazi Anees-ur-Rehman, alias Captain, went in a rickshaw and two accused on the motorcycle were available for backup.

He further noted that after the crime was committed big weapons were handed over to Asad and his wife Bisma for transportation and the incident was allegedly appreciated by accused Altaf Hussain through Saleem Belgium on WhatsApp.

The judge added that accused Zameer allegedly gave shelter to the accused persons and also hid the weapons, whereas Waqas and Tanzeem provided food to them.

“In view of above disclosure, the roles of present accused persons are very much clear and they are prima facie connected with the commission of the crime being facilitators,” the judge wrote in the order and dismissed their bail pleas.

Earlier, defence counsel Firdous Jahan had contended in the bail plea that applicant Bisma Naz was the president of the Arsalan Homes Residency Heights in North Karachi, where the PSP wanted to open its unit office, but the applicant refused to cooperate, thus she was named in the present case.

The counsel added that the investigating officer showed the female applicant as an absconder in the supplementary charge sheet filed on April 5, 2019 after she filed a petition regarding her missing husband with the Sindh High Court.

The counsel said that the applicant had minor children to look after, but she had been behind bars for the last six months and pleaded that she be admitted to post-arrest bail.

Advocate Farooque Hayat, defence counsel for the other accused, had contended that his clients were arrested in connection with three cases related to illicit weapons’ recoveries, which were not connected to the present case.

He added that accused Mohsin had allegedly disclosed names of the applicants, but there was no evidence to link them with the present case since there was no CDR data nor any identification parade of the applicants was held. He pleaded for grant of post-arrest bail to the applicants.

On the other hand, Rangers special public prosecutor Rana Khalid Hussain had opposed the bail applications arguing that their role of being facilitators in the present case was established in the confessional statements recorded by two co-accused Mohsin and Rehman, alias Shahrukh, in the present case, before a judicial magistrate on March 11, 2019. He asked the court to dismiss the bail pleas.

A case was lodged under sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempt to murder), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Rizvia Society police station.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2020