KARACHI: A sessions’ court has acquitted alleged Lyari gang warfare kingpin Uzair Baloch in two more cases for “lack of evidence” against him.

Baloch, chief of the defunct Peoples Amn Committee, was exonerated of the charges of attacking policemen in the violence-torn Lyari neighbourhood during a crackdown against gangsters in 2012.

Additional District and Sessions’ Judge (South) Faraz Ahmed Chandio recently pronounced his verdict.

Police had nominated Habib Jan Baloch, Wasiullah Lakho, Umar Kachhi and Sharfuddin as suspects in the case and showed M. Kashif and Faisal Mehmood as absconders.

According to the prosecution, the four suspects were arrested following an encounter in the Kalri area on April 5, 2012. One TT pistol, four rounds and 1,900 grams of cannabis was seized from the arrested suspects, it said.

In the second case, the prosecution stated that Uzair Baloch, Abdul Ghaffar, alias Mama, and other suspects opened fire on a police mobile van in the Kalakot area causing damage to it.

They managed to flee after the attack, it said.

The other suspects nominated as absconders in the case are Naeem Lahoti, Abdul Jabbar, Shafi Pathan, Mullah Nisar, Zahid Hussain aka Ladla, Taj Mohammad aka Taju, Rashid Rekha, Sheraz Comrade and Noor Mohammad aka Baba Ladla.

Uzair has been acquitted in 17 of dozens of criminal cases registered against him since 2016 from the sessions courts for want of evidence.

He has also been acquitted in four other cases from the ATCs on the same grounds.

A military court had earlier sentenced him to 12 years in prison for spying for Iranian intelligence and leaking sensitive information to them.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2021