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KARACHI, Aug 7: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday deferred till Sept 4 the indictment of former chief minister of Balochistan Sardar Akhtar Mengal in a case of kidnapping and holding hostage army personnel on April 5, 2006.
Judge Saghir Hussain Zaidi of the ATC-III, who is conducting the trial in the Central Prison, had earlier fixed July 5 for framing charges against the accused, but the hearing was adjourned due to the lawyers’ strike against the presidential reference against Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
The court put off the date on the application of one of his counsel, who stated that he was preoccupied in another case.
Sardar Akhtar Mengal, chief of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal), is being tried by the court for kidnapping and holding hostage havaldar Qurban Hussain and lance-naik Fayaz Ahmed while the army personnel were performing their intelligence duties on April 5, 2006.
According to the prosecution, Mr Mengal and his employees tortured the two men with the intention to kill them at his Darakshan residence. The abducted men were released after law-enforcement personnel laid a siege to Mr Mengal’s house.
Four domestic servants of Sardar Akhtar Mengal have already been sentenced to life imprisonment in the case. The convicts were Nasarullah Mengal, Ghulam Hyder Langah alias Chappar, Mehboob Ali Sattai and Ghulam Qadir. They have filed appeals in the Sindh High Court against the verdict.
An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday recorded the statement of a doctor, who is a prosecution witness, in a case of kidnapping, rape and killing of a minor girl. The incident took place on Feb 22, 2006 in the Rizvia Society police limits.
Saleem Ahmed alias Babloo, son of Abdur Rasheed, was indicted in the case on July 23, but he had pleaded not guilty in the court of ATC-1 Judge Ghulam Ali A. Samtio.
Dr Ashfaq Bhattai, a medico-legal officer in the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, in his statement in the court said he had conducted the tests which proved that the girl was raped. He said the signs of semen on the slides also proved that the crime was committed with the minor girl. In his statement, the doctor added that the accused’s claim that he was impotent had also proved baseless.
Special Public Prosecutor Niamat Ali Randhawa told the court that a lady doctor would record her statement as a prosecution witness in the case.
The court has already recorded the statement of a private prosecution witness, Ikram, on the previous date of hearing. In his statement, he said he knew the accused who lived in the same locality where the witness lived. He said he had seen the accused throwing the girl’s body into a sewer. The accused was arrested in his presence, who later confessed to his crime in the Rizvia Society police station.
According to the prosecution, the accused kidnapped a three-year-old girl identified as Maryam, daughter of Bashir Ahmed of Rizvia Society, in front of her residence on Feb 22, 2006.
The accused raped the child, who fainted and later died. He was throwing something wrapped in a piece of cloth into a sewer when a police constable and an area resident saw him and arrested him. He tried to convince the people gathered there that he was innocent. He was, however, brought to the Rizvia Society police station, where he confessed to his crime.
The police informed Edhi volunteers and the body was retrieved from the sewer near the Gutter Baghicha.
