KARACHI, March 22: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday recorded final arguments in the hearing of a case pertaining to the murder of Mufti Ateeq-ur-Rehman and his brother, Mufti Mohammad Irshad.Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of ATC-V, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison, recorded the final arguments of both sides and reserved his verdict for pronouncement till March 26.

In the final arguments, the defence counsel, Mushatq Ahmed, submitted before the court that names of the eyewitnesses had been included in the list of prosecution witnesses after the arrest of the accused. He argued that there were glaring contradictions in oral and medical reports. He pleaded for the acquittal of his client.

The Special Public Prosecutor, Mazhar Qayyum, submitted that the prosecution had produced two eyewitnesses in court while the witnesses had also identified the accused during the identification parade. He argued that the prosecution had successfully proved its case and demanded the death penalty for the accused.

According to the persecution, Mufti Ateeq-ur-Rehman and his brother, Mufti Mohammad Irshad, were killed in the limits of the Preedy police station on June 23, 2005 when unknown gunmen opened fire upon on their carriage.

The court had indicted the accused, Hammad Raza, on Sept 12, but he had pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.

An FIR (No 315/05) had been registered at the Preedy police station under Sections 302, 324 and 427/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code against Hammad Raza and absconding co-accused, Syed Mohammad Askari.

The court has examined around 13 prosecution witnesses including two eyewitnesses and a medico-legal officer of the Civil Hospital Karachi. The MLO had conducted the autopsy of Mufti Ateeq’s body. He had confirmed that both persons had died due to bullet wounds. The judical magistrate, Sara Junejo, who had conducted the identification parade of the accused, had also recorded her statements before the trail court.

Meanwhile, ATC-V was entrusted with the trial of the Rimpa Plaza massacre case by the Administrative Judge of Anti-Terrorism Courts, Justice Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, adds APP.

Earlier, the CID Police submitted a charge-sheet against accused Zubairuddin, Muhammad Atif and Muhammad Asim.

They were charged with killing six workers of a Christian missionary body, Idara-i-Amn-o-Insaf, at Rimpa Plaza in 2002.

DPPs named