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KARACHI, March 22: A security officer of Mazar-i-Quaid was on Saturday remanded into police custody for three days over his alleged involvement in the gang-rape of an 18-year-old woman on the premises of the mausoleum.
Police arrested the mazar security officer on March 20 after he was identified by the rape victim. The woman was subjected to sexual assault after being kidnapped on the premises of the mazar by unknown men on the night of March 15 and was found in an unstable condition outside the mausoleum in the early hours of March 17.
During the identification parade conducted on Saturday in the court of the civil judge and judicial magistrate, East, Javed Hussain, the victim identified the accused and said that she could identify the other accused involved in the crime.
The investigation officer, Sabir Hussain, told the court that efforts were being made to arrest the other accused in the case.
The case (FIR No 50/08) was registered at the Brigade police station under Section 365/B of Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s father, Bashir Ahmed.
Boiler blast case
The additional district and sessions judge-II, Central, Nelofer Shahnawaz, on Saturday recorded the statement of a witness in the boiler blast case and adjourned the hearing till April 5.
The blast occurred at a towel-dyeing and bleaching factory in New Karachi on July 24, 2007 and left nine people dead and 25 others injured.
A prosecution witness, ASI Mohammad Ismail, appeared in court and recorded his statement. The judge directed the other witnesses to appear in court on the next hearing.
Earlier, the factory owner, Akhtar Hussain Baloch, and the boiler operator, Mohammad Ahsanullah, were indicted on a manslaughter charge. They pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.
A case (FIR 359/07) was registered against them under Section of 322 of Pakistan Penal Code at the Taimuria police station after the boiler had exploded.
Over 10 prosecution witnesses have so far testified in the case.
The same court re-issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the arrest of a policeman and three other prosecution witnesses in a case pertaining to a bus accident in which two college girls were killed and many other injured.
The court directed the police to produce the witnesses on the next hearing while re-issuing the non-bailable arrest warrants for ASI Irfan of the Sharifabad police station, Madeeha, Shahida and Saher Afshan, the students injured in the accident, for not complying with the court’s orders.
According to the prosecution, Nida Afzaal and Ravia Beenish, the two intermediate students of APWA collage of Karimabad, were killed and many other injured on February 19, 2002 when the driver of route 5-C bus (JA 5983) while racing with another bus lost control.
The driver, Mohammad Munawwar, and the bus owner, M. Ibrahim, were arrested after the incident. The Sharifabad police station registered a case (FIR No 54/02) against them under Sections 320, 322 and 337 of Pakistan Penal Code. The court fixed April 15 as the next date of hearing.
