KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday acquitted 13 officials of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) for lack of evidence in a kidnapping for ransom case.

The accused persons filed applications for their acquittal through their counsel, Naimatullah Shah, Haider Farooq Jatoi, and others, before the ATC-I in Clifton.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the court acquitted 13 accused — Shoaib Qureshi, Kashif Ali Khan, Sardar Rauf alias Sardar Iqbal, Muhammad Khaleeq, Rizwan, Zeeshan, Muhammad Younus, Muhammad Shakeel, Ali Hassan, Muhammad Asif, Ameer Ali, Khalid Mehmood and Abdul Jabbar — under Section 265-K (power of court to acquit accused at any stage) of the code of criminal procedure.

Defence counsel Naimatullah told Dawn that he along with other defence lawyers had filed acquittal applications before the court as the complainant was no longer pursuing the case with interest.

During the argument, he contended in the court that not a single witness statement, including that of the victim, who is also an eyewitness of the case, had been recorded since 2022.

He further stated that his client, Shoaib, had already spent two years in jail due to this case.

According to the prosecution, CTD Inspector Shoaib Qureshi, Constable Sardar Rauf, aka Sardar Iqbal, driver Muhammad Khaleeq, Kashif Ali Khan and others abducted Saad Shafiq and his friend for ransom in 2022. They were booked under Sections 365-A (kidnapping for extorting property, valuable security, etc), 384 (punishment for extortion), 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, at the Bilal Colony police station.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2025