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KARACHI, May 27: An additional district and sessions court acquitted on Thursday four workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in a murder case. The court exonerated Ajmal Pahari, Nadim Marble, Dilawar alias Khan Sahib and Asghar alias Mian from the charge for want of incriminating evidence.
The Muttahida men were prosecuted for killing Mohammed Aslam, an activist of the MQM-Haqiqi on April 30, 1996, in Orangi. The same court ordered the release of another Muttahida worker, arrested and booked for possessing an illegal weapon as the prosecution withdrew its case. The Surjani police had arrested and booked Irfan Zaheer in the 13-D case in 2003.
SENTENCED: The district and session judge, South, Bin Yameen, sentenced two bandits to suffer rigorous imprisonment for five years. Accused Momin Khan and Sanaullah were found guilty of having looted Rs155,000 from Babar Ismail and Rs70,000 from Tayyab at gun-point last year in Mithadar.
The judge also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 on the bandits and he further ordered that the defaulter on the payment would have to suffer another three-month RI.
SECTARIAN MURDER CASES: An anti-terrorism court put off the hearing of two murder cases against the workers of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi on the request of the defence counsel.
Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison, fixed June 1 for the next hearing after an application seeking adjournment was placed before him.
Defence counsel M. R. Syed informed the court that he was engaged before a bench of the Sindh High Court and sought adjournment. One of the cases pertained to the murder of a pesh-imam of an imambargah and his son on Sept 12, 2001. Two LJ men - Ataullah and Mohammed Azam - have been charged with the sectarian killing.
Syed Razi Haider Najafi, the pesh imam who was also a teacher at a school, and his 15-year-old son Syed Abbas Ali were killed and his youngest son, Syed Mohammed Ali, was injured around 7:45am when the accused, riding a bike, opened fire on their car near Submarine Chowrangi in Gizri.
The second case pertained to the killing of Kazim Hussain Jafferi on March 21, 2002, in an attack on his vedio shop in Mehmoodabad. Ataullah and Riaz are facing the charges.
JUDGMENT RESERVED: An anti-terrorism court reserved on Thursday judgment in a kidnapping for ransom case. Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2 fixed June 8 for the pronouncement of judgement after hearing final arguments from the prosecution and defence attorneys.
Nayyar Raza is being prosecuted for the kidnapping of Asif Raza Zaidi in Gulistan-i-Jauhar in November 2003. According to the prosecution, Nayyar along with three other accused, kidnapped the victim and demanded Rs2.5 million for his release.
Accused Nayyar was arrested after he was tracked down by the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee. The police recovered the victim from a house in Jaffer Tayyar Society on his lead.
One of his accomplices was also killed in the shootout with the police during the raid on their hideout. The dead was identified as Chand. Two other accused - Aun Mohammed alias Ooni and Shakir Ali - had fled the scene and they were declared absconders.
REMAND EXTENDED: Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC)-III Karachi on Thursday extended police remand of Kamran alias Atif, an activist of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Alami, who was arrested week in an injured condition after a police shootout till May 31, adds PPI.
The investigation officer sought extension of police remand of the accused. The court, granting the request for extension in police remand, ordered the IO to appear before court on May 31.
