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KARACHI, May 7: A division bench of the Sindh High Court set aside on Monday the conviction of an activist of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in the Imambargah Ali Raza bomb blast case and ordered his acquittal.
The bench, comprising Justice Muhammad Afzal Soomro and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, ordered the release of Gul Hasan alias Ali Haider if he was not wanted in any other case.
Gul Hasan alias Ali Haider was sentenced to death on May 7, 2005 by Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the Anti-terrorism Court No. 5 for masterminding the suicide bombing at Imambargah Ali Raza on M. A. Jinnah Road, which left 22 people dead and 29 others wounded on May 31, 2004.
The trial judge had also sentenced to life imprisonment and forfeiture of property for causing explosion and damaging property of Imambargah Ali Raza and articles lying thereon. According to the prosecution, Gul Hassan with co-accused Asif Chotto, Fawad and Khan left co-accused Muhammad Ali with a briefcase of explosives for suicide attack at Imambargah Ali Raza on May 31, 2004. Gul Hassan was present in a nearby mosque.
The convict, represented by Ilyas Khan and Mohammed Farooq, moved an appeal against his conviction in the High Court praying it to set aside the impugned order of the ATC-5 and acquit him.
During their closing arguments, the defence counsel submitted before the SHC that the prosecution had failed to establish its case against the appellant in the trial court as its evidences had been full of contradictions.
They argued that the deposition of the two eyewitnesses -- Iqbal Hussain and Mujahid Hussain Rizvi -- could not be relied upon as they were chance witnesses. They stated the prosecution was also silent about the pieces of briefcase collected after the blast and there was no statement of the witness that the blast occurred in the briefcase, taken by the alleged suicide bomber.
The SHC had reserved its judgment on March 22, 2007 after hearing the closing arguments of the defence and prosecution attorneys.
ACQUITTED: The same division bench set aside the trial court judgment and acquitted a man convicted in the murder case of ex-chairman of Pakistan Steel, Sajjad Hussain.
Khan Muhammad Chachar was sentenced to death by the additional district and session judge, South, Manawar Sultana, on March 7, 2007.
He along with absconding co-accused Saleemuddin and Sohail Panga was charged with the murder of Sajjad Hussain on the instance of Asif Ali Zardari, husband of former premier Benazir Bhutto, in the DHA area on September 11, 1998. Asif Zardari was acquitted in the case on August 13, 2003 by the additional district and sessions judge, South, Abrar Hussain.
