KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Wednesday acquitted chief of the defunct Peoples Amn Committee Uzair Jan Baloch and another individual in a case pertaining to encounter and attempt to murder.

This is the fourth criminal case in which the sessions and antiterrorism courts have acquitted the alleged Lyari kingpin in recent weeks.

In the present case, Uzair Baloch and Ameen Buledi were charged with instigating the co-accused — Rashid Bengali, Jamshed Sonar, Sajjad Khatri, Sheeraz Comrade, Jabbar, alias Jhengo and Ghaffar Niazi — to resort to violence and attack policemen with intention to kill them in the Baghdadi area of Lyari in April 2012.

On Wednesday, the ATC-VII judge pronounced his judgement.

The judge noted that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against the two accused — Uzair Baloch and Ameen Buledi — thus exonerated them of the charges due to lack of evidence against them.

The judge directed the prison authorities to release both the men forthwith if their custody was not required in any other case.

However, the court kept the case against six absconding suspects on dormant file until their arrest or surrender. The court issued perpetual warrants for their arrest.

According to the prosecution, a police party during routine patrolling in the area received information that 10 to 12 accused involved in gang-war in Lyari were stopping traffic in Baghdadi on April 28. The police party tried to stop the accused, who started firing with an intention to kill the policemen, it added.

Defence counsel Abid Zaman contended that his clients Uzair Baloch and Ameen Buledi were charged with instigating their accomplices to resort to violence and encounter with police, but the prosecution lacked incriminating evidence to prove the allegations.

State prosecutor Tufail Akbar argued that there was sufficient evidence to establish the charges against the accused, who in connivance with their absconding accomplices had committed the offence.

Defunct PAC chief Uzair Baloch faces over 50 criminal cases pending before different sessions and antiterrorism courts.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2021