KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Saturday acquitted outlawed Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) chief Uzair Baloch in two 10-year-old cases pertaining to an armed attack on police and terrorising people for lack of evidence against him.

The ATC-VII judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, pronounced the verdict reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The court exonerated Uzair and his two accomplices from the charges of carrying out an armed assault on law enforcers during an operation against criminals in Lyari in 2012.

According to the prosecution, Uzair Baloch along with co-accused Shahid alias MCB and others engaged in an encounter with law enforcers with an intention to kill them during a raid for their arrest within the jurisdiction of the Napier police station on May 1, 2012.

Different courts have exonerated outlawed Amn Committee chief in around 22 cases

They also resorted to arson and violence and spread a sense of terror among the residents of the locality, it added.

The same court also acquitted Uzair Baloch in another identical case lodged at the Kharadar police station.

The prosecution alleged that law enforcers had conducted a raid to arrest the criminals engaged in gang warfare in Lyari, where Uzair Baloch along with his aides opened fire on them with an intention to kill.

The state prosecutor argued that there was sufficient evidence to convict the accused persons for committing the offences.

Defence counsel Abid Zaman contended that there were glaring contradictions in the evidence produce by the prosecution, thus his client may be acquitted of the false and fabricated allegations.

Uzair Baloch while recording his statement under Section 342 of the criminal procedure code had also denied the allegations and pleaded innocence.

Two separate cases were registered under Sections 324 (attempted murder), 337 (Shajja), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Napier and Kharadar police stations.

The alleged Lyari gangster is facing trial in dozens of criminal cases pertaining to murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, extortion, encounters with law enforcers.

Till date, he has been acquitted in some 22 cases either due to ‘lack of evidence’ or the courts granted him the benefit of doubt.

In April 2020, Uzair Baloch was sentenced to 12-year imprisonment by a military court on charges of spying for foreign intelligence agencies.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2022