KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has upheld life imprisonment handed down to four men by an antiterrorism court in the Safari Park encounter case in which a DSP was killed in 2013.

An ATC had sentenced Imran Toofan, Allah Wadayo, Ahmer and Ranjhan to life in prison in July 2019 for killing DSP Qasim Ghauri and Assistant Sub-Inspector Asif and wounding five other policemen in a shoot-out near Safari Park in August 2013.

The convicts through their counsel had filed appeals against conviction before the SHC and after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha dismissed the appeals and maintained the trial court order.

The bench in its judgment said that all the appellants were arrested on the spot, firearms were recovered from them and the statement of the complainant/ eyewitness, who was present on the crime scene throughout the incident, was found reliable and confidence inspiring while two other police officers fully corroborated the evidence of the complainant.

The weapons recovered from the appellants were sent for a forensic analysis and the report said that the empty bullet casings recovered from the scene were matched, it added.

The verdict further said that the court had also examined the defence case, which was essentially one of false implication as the appellants were not present at the time of encounter since they were earlier picked up by Rangers.

However, it noted that the appellants neither testified on oath nor produced any witness to support the defence plea and nobody had filed any complaint against the paramilitary force for allegedly abducting them.

“In the face of reliable trust worthy prosecution evidence we disbelieve the defence case as an afterthought,” it concluded.

Initially, police had arrested nine suspects for their alleged involvement in a shootout with police and carrying unlicensed weapons but later released five of them including Abdul Ghaffar, Mohabbat Ali, Abdul Malik, Samiullah and Imtiaz under Section 169 (release of accused when evidence deficient) of the criminal procedure code since no evidence was found against them during the investigation of the cases.

According to the prosecution, DSP Qasim Ghauri and ASI Asif were killed and five other police officers were wounded during a five-hour-long encounter in and around Safari Park on Aug 15, 2013.

It further said that the accomplices of the arrested accused identified as Zaman Shah, Amir Bux Chachar and Umaid Ali were killed in the shootout and they all belonged to the Mohammed Pariyal Shah group.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2022