KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has upheld life imprisonment handed down to a policeman by an antiterrorism court in a case pertaining to the murder of two youngsters.

However, the two-judge antiterrorism appellate bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha observed that the case did not fall within the ambit of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997, since the intent of policeman was to stop the youths for checking, but they tried to ride away.

An ATC had convicted Constable Madad Khan for life in prison in February 2019 for killing motorcyclists Mohammad Ali and Mohammad Danish on Tipu Sultan Road in Bahadurabad in May 2015, as they allegedly attempted to speed away when a police party signalled them to stop.

The trial court had acquitted four other members of the police party for lack of evidence.

Court rules offence did not fall within ATA purview

The convict, through his lawyer, filed an appeal against his conviction before the SHC, which after hearing both sides and examining record and proceedings of the case upheld the conviction handed under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code, but removed the offences of ATA.

However, the bench in its order noted that the state and complainant party neither filed an appeal against the acquittal of the co-accused, who were alleged to be with the convict at the time of the incident, nor submitted any application for enhancement of the appellant’s sentence.

It further said that after considering the judicial confession of the appellant and the evidence on record, the bench found that the confession was made voluntarily and all the procedural safeguards were carried out by the magistrate while recording confessional statement, and the statements of prosecution witnesses corroborated the case of prosecution.

The ballistic report of the official sub-machine gun (SMG) issued to the appellant was also positive as he fired four bullets and the medical report also supported the prosecution story since one victim sustained two bullet wounds and other received one bullet injury, it added.

The verdict stated that the prosecution proved its case against the appellant while the case of co-accused was on a different footing as they did not make any confession, and all the rounds of their SMGs were also returned, and in his confession the appellant said they were only present with him and did not fire.

The bench said that the case did not fall within the purview of the ATA as decided by a larger bench of the Supreme Court in the case of Ghulam Hussain verses state as for an act of terrorism there had to be an intent, object and design to create terror on account of that act.

“Based on the particular facts and circumstances of this case it appears that the intent of the appellant was to stop the deceased who refused to obey his signal to stop their motorbike for checking and instead rode on and as such he became furious and fired upon them with intention to kill for disobeying his order to stop but not with design, intent or purpose to create terror as such all offences under the ATA are dismissed especially as it was a night time incident when no member of the public was even around to be terrorized,” it added.

According to the prosecution, Ali and Danish along with other friends were going to Dhoraji for tea and at around 2.15am. A police party of the Bahadurabad police station signalled them to stop at the traffic signal on Tipu Sultan Road, but they allegedly sped away and the police opened fire on them suspecting them as criminals who were fleeing after looting people.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2022