KARACHI, July 17: A division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Justice Moosa K. Laghari and Justice Muhammad Afzal Soomro on Tuesday issued a notice to the advocate-general of Sindh for July 23 on the application for transfer of the Mashooq Brohi murder case from Nawabshah to Karachi.

Lyari Task Force’s sacked chief Chaudhry Aslam claimed to have killed notorious robber Mashooq Brohi in a police encounter on July 12, 2006 in the limits of Gadap police. However, the claim was rejected by the investigation officer and subsequently the IG of Sindh ordered an inquiry into the matter.

A case against the LTF chief and other police officials who took part in the alleged encounter was also registered at Sakrand police station on July 12, 2006 on the complaint of Lal Bibi, wife of Rasool Bux Brohi, whom the LTF had killed as Mashooq Brohi, a notorious criminal.

Suspended SP Chaudhry Aslam, DSP Irfan Bahadur Ali and SHO of Shershah Syed Safdar Ali Shah, filing a transfer application under Section 526 of the CrPC, submitted that it was a settled principle of law that a case and a counter case were tried in one court to avoid any conflict of judgment.

The applicants' counsel, M. Ilyas Khan and Muhammad Farooq, expressing lack of trust in the trial court of Nawabshah, said their clients had lost all hopes of an impartial trial before the sessions judge of Nawabshah and prayed to the SHC to transfer the trial of the case from the sessions judge of Nawabshah to the sessions judge of Malir.

It was alleged that the LTF arrested Rasool Bux from his house in Sakrand and later killed him in the Gadap area in a fake encounter. The LTF chief and other senior police officers are facing a trial on murder charges before the sessions court in Nawabshah in the case.

PQA chairman