HYDERABAD: The additional district judge-II of Hyderabad on Friday acquitted 10 activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in a violence case, registered against them at the City police station in July 2018, for want of evidence. They all had been on bail.

Accused Mohammad Ali, Anees, Hamid Noor, Sartaj Baba, Iftikhar Sheikh, Akbar Sheikh, Masood Khan, Adnan, Jamil Arain and Sajid Khanzada were booked in FIR No. 98/18 under sections 148, 149, 353, 324 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code on July 19, 2018.

Their counsel argued that his clients were booked at another police station for the same crime and the same time. They were accused of firing on police and causing obstructions in the discharge of official duty but no one was wounded in the alleged offence.

He also pointed out that the case properties were not sealed by the police. There were no pockmarks of bullets in the area, he added. He said they had been acquitted in other identical cases registered at the two police stations. He claimed the cases were politically motivated.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2021