KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Monday indicted suspected Lyari gangster Uzair Jan Baloch and his accomplice in a case pertaining to the attempted murder and attack on police during the 2012 Lyari operation.

The alleged gangster and head of the banned Peoples Amn Committee Uzair, Amin Buledi and others have been booked for making attempts on the lives of policemen, damaging their vehicles and rioting during the Lyari operation.

An ATC judge read out the charges against the accused persons and they pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case. The court summoned the prosecution witnesses with the direction to record their statements on Aug 17.

The case was lodged under multiple sections of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 for rioting, attempted murder, criminal force to deter policemen and damaging the APC/police vans at the Baghdadi police station.

A total of around 35 cases of murder, attempted murder and attack on police were registered against Uzair and his accomplices during the operation conducted by the police in Lyari in 2012.

Pakistan Rangers had announced the arrest of Uzair Baloch in a raid on the outskirts of Karachi in January 2016 and after 90-day preventive detention, the paramilitary force had handed him over to police for investigation.

A joint investigation team (JIT) had also grilled him and he had allegedly confessed to killing 198 people before the JIT. A judicial magistrate had also recorded his confessional statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code in April 2016.

The military authorities had taken custody of Uzair from the Karachi Central Prison in April 2017 to try him on the charges of espionage and leak of sensitive information to foreign intelligence agencies.

Man gets 10 years jail

Another ATC on Monday sentenced a man to 10 years imprisonment for raising funds for a banned militant outfit.

The ATC-XII judge found Mohammad Asad Qureshi, alias Mullan, guilty of collecting funds for the proscribed organisation Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan in April near a mosque in Bandhani Colony, Liaquatabad.

The judge handed down 10 years term under Section 11-H (fundraising for terrorism) of ATA 1997 and imposed a fine of Rs50,000 and in case of default the convict would have to undergo an additional six months in prison.

The court also sentenced him to three years and six months imprisonment in two sub-sections of Section 11-F (Membership, support and meetings relating to a Proscribed Organisation) of the ATA and also imposed fines. However, all the sentences will run concurrently.

The court observed that the prosecution successfully proved its case against the accused since the recovery of a donation book and place of arrest of the accused was proved without any doubt while his association with the banned outfit was also confirmed.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2020