KARACHI: A sessions court has directed the Karachi prison chief to produce the detained chief of the defunct Peoples Amn Committee, Uzair Jan Baloch, in a case pertaining to encounter and attempted murder.

Uzair, the alleged Lyari kingpin, is facing dozens of cases pertaining to murder, kidnapping, attempted murder, encounter with law enforcers and others pending before the antiterrorism and sessions courts in Karachi.

When the additional district and sessions judge (South) Kamran Atta Soomro took up a case pertaining to encounter and attempted murder on Thursday, the prison authorities failed to produce Uzair Baloch.

The prison officials submitted a letter of the superintendent of the Karachi central prison, stating that there were security risks in shifting custody of the undertrial prisoner (Uzair Baloch) for his production before the incumbent court in the City Courts judicial complex.

They further informed that due to such security risks the provincial home department had notified the present case for trial inside the Karachi central prison. Therefore, they requested the judge to transfer the case to another court located in the judicial complex inside the city jail.

However, the judge did not pass any order regarding transfer of the case and asked the prison chief to first ensure production of Uzair Baloch before the court, defence counsel Abdul Hafeez Lashari said.

According to the prosecution, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) had booked Uzair Baloch along with 10 others for allegedly attacking law enforcers with an intention to commit murder during an operation against criminals in Lyari in 2012.

Mr Lashari said that all the co-accused had already been acquitted in the present case except Uzair Baloch, since trial proceedings against him were halted after his custody was handed over to the army in April 2017.

In April 2020, a military court had sentenced Uzair Baloch to 12-year imprisonment in a case pertaining to spying for foreign countries.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2021