An anti-terrorism court on Thursday recorded the statements of two accused in a kidnapping case of an SSC student Rashid, son of Qadir Bux Brohi, who was kidnapped on Nov 15, 2006.

Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of ATC-V, who is conducting the trial, recorded the statements of Sheraz Ahmed, son of A.D Shahid, and Qari Ghulam Yaseen.

The accused in their deposition again pleaded not guilty and said that they had been falsely implicated in the case and would produce witnesses in their defence.

Special Public Prosecutor M. Mahzhar Qayyum had already told the court on Aug 17 that the prosecution had produced 15 witnesses and closed his side.

The judge fixed Aug 25 for recording statements of the defence witnesses in the case, which would be followed by final arguments.

According to the prosecution, the accused had kidnapped Rashid on Nov 15, 2006, from the Hub River side and kept him somewhere in the limits of the Manghopir police station.They had demanded Rs10 million as ransom for his release, but his family had negotiated with the abductors and agreed to pay only Rs2 million and later paid the amount in Nawaz Sharif Park, Islamabad, and the student was released.

An FIR 147/06 under Section 365-A/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered against the accused at the Manghopir police station. The accused were arrested on Feb 28, 2007 from their residence in Khawaja Ajmer Nagri in two other cases. Later, Rashid, the abducted student, identified the culprits in an identification parade.

According to the deposition of police inspector Zafar Iqbal, who had arrested the accused, they used to commit crimes disguised as police personnel and pairs of police uniform were also recovered from their possession. He said that their accomplices Zahoor Ahmed Shah and Ghalib were absconding.

A source said that the accused were also involved in the kidnapping of a builder and another case against them was under trial in the same court.