KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Saturday sentenced two convicts to 11 years in prison in cases pertaining to encounter with law enforcers, attempted murder and terrorism.

Shakeel Khan and M. Shafqat were found guilty of firing at police with intention of murder and causing terror at the Umar Sharif Park on August 11, 2020.

On Saturday, the ATC-XX judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, pronounced his judgement reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The judge noted that the prosecution successfully proved the allegations against the accused and sentenced them to a collective imprisonment of 11 years.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs40,000 each on the convicts.

On default, they would undergo six-month imprisonment each.

Special public prosecutor Iqbal Meo Rajput contended that there was sufficient evidence to prove the charges against the accused, whose firing had wounded a police constable, Dildar.

He said that due to non-cooperation of private witnesses, police officials testified as witnesses and recorded their statements that corroborated with the allegations and material evidence.

He added that an unlicensed 0.32 bore calibre pistol was also recovered from Shafqat.

On the other hand, the accused denied the allegations and claimed innocence in their statements recorded under Section 342 of the criminal procedure code.

Three cases were registered at the Boat Basin police station on behalf of the state.

Exhumation of woman’s body ordered

A judicial magistrate on Saturday ordered exhuming the body of a woman, who had allegedly been murdered by her husband.

Police detained and booked Anand Kumar over his alleged involvement in the murder of his wife Kanti Kumari in the Baghdadi locality.

On Saturday, the investigating officer produced the suspect before the judicial magistrate (South) to seek his physical remand in police custody for interrogation and investigation.

He said that the suspect had solemnised a free-will marriage with the victim one-and-half-years ago and out of wedlock they had a six-month-old baby girl. He added that the man, in his 30s and working in a bank, allegedly murdered his wife and buried her body without a post-mortem examination.

Therefore, his physical custody was required for interrogation. He also moved an application requesting the court to grant permission for exhuming the body of the victim, aged around 25, for the post-mortem to complete the investigation and other legal formalities.

The judge remanded the suspect in police custody till June 14 directing the IO to produce him on next date along with an investigation report.

The judge also allowed exhuming the body of the victim.

The court directed the provincial health authorities to constitute a medical board for conducting the medico-legal examination of the victim to ascertain the actual cause of death, etc.

A murder case was registered at the Baghdadi police station.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2021