KARACHI, Feb 14: An anti-terrorism court acquitted on Monday a juvenile accused in a kidnapping for ransom case against.

Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-3 exonerated accused Noorul Ameen from the charge of kidnapping a two-year-old girl for ransom on October 5, last year in Ibrahim Haideri.

According to prosecution, the accused allegedly kidnapped the daughter of Abdul Majeed, who was his teacher in calligraphy, and demanded Rs100,000 for the release of the minor girl.

He was allegedly arrested after three days of the kidnapping on a tip-off by a police informer. The public prosecutor examined in all five prosecution witnesses against the accused, who was prosecuted under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance.

MOSQUE BLAST: An anti-terrorism court put off the hearing of the Haideri Mosque bomb blast case against a worker of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi as the defence counsel did not turn up.

The judge fixed Feb 16 the next hearing after he was informed that defence counsel Mushtaq Ahmed had gone to his hometown to attend the funeral of one of his relatives.

As many as 26 people were killed and 98 others injured on May 7 when a suicide bomber blew himself inside the Haideri mosque at the Sindh Madarsatul Islam. The LJ man, Gul Hasan, accused is stated to have been the mastermind of bomb blasts at Haideri Mosque and Imambargah Ali Raza.

JUDGMENT RESERVED: An Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi on Monday reserved judgment in a trial against activist of Harkatul Mujahideen Al Alami in petrol pump blast case, adds PPI.

Mehmoodullah is charged with causing bomb explosion at the Shell petrol pump in New Town on May 15, 2003. Concluding the final arguments, defence counsel Nadeem Shahzad Hashmi opposed the prosecution case. He raised objections over identification parade of the accused, contending serious irregularities were committed by the concerned magistrate while conducting the identification parade.

He argued that there was no direct allegation against his client besides the explosive expert report also did not support the prosecution case. Special Public Prosecutor Abdul Waheed Khan submitted that prosecution proved its case and accused be convicted for committing act of terrorism.

Earlier, the court had recorded statements of investigation officer and the accused. ATC Judge Feroz Mehmood Bhatti after hearing final arguments of both side counsels reserved the judgment and fixed Feb 21 for order.

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