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KARACHI, March 2: An anti-terrorism court recorded on Wednesday the statement of the father of the suicide bomber of the Haideri mosque blast case against a worker of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.
Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 fixed March 7 for the next hearing after special public prosecutor Mazhar Qayyum produced Kashmir Khan, father of police constable Akbar Khan Niazi who had blown himself inside the mosque.
As many as 26 people were killed and 98 others injured on May 7 when a suicide bomber blew himself inside the Haideri mosque on the premises of the historic Sindh Madarsah.
LJ man Gul Hasan is stated to have been the mastermind of bomb blasts at Haideri Mosque and Imambargah Ali Raza. He is alleged to have planned the attacks with absconding accused that included Asif Chutto and Mufti Obaid.
PW Kashmir Khan, father of eight sons and two daughters, stated that his son had participated in the Afghan Jihad twice. He said he got his son married in his bid to keep him away from his activities.
Kashmir Khan said Akbar, who was father of a two-year-old son, had left the house on May 4, 2004, telling his wife that he would return after 10 to 12 days. He said the Pesh Imam of the Masjid Quba in their locality used to persuade people to participate in jihad. He said Pesh Imam Murtaza also disappeared after his son.
KIDNAPPING CASE: Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-3 recorded statement of the investigation officer in the kidnapping case of two minor siblings, who were recovered after remaining in captivity for over 14 months.
The judge also recorded the statements of accused Zulfiqar Ahmed, Zafar Iqbal and Sajid Iqbal and fixed March 5 for hearing final arguments from the prosecution and defence attorneys.
Jahanzeb, 8, and Komal, 7, were allegedly kidnapped near Carson Complext in block-II of Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Dec 10, 2001 when they along with their mother were going to school. The kidnappers demanded Rs2.5 million as ransom. They kept the kids in Karachi for four months and then they shifted them to the house of accused Zulfiqar in Rawalpindi.
The mother, however, told the kidnappers that she was not in a position to pay the ransom amount in lump sump. She agreed to pay the amount in instalments and issued a cheque for Rs250,000 in the favour of absconding accused M. Ashraf.
The kidnapped children came into contact with their mother on internet. The woman reported the matter to the Citizen-Police Liason Committee, which found out the address of accused Zulfiqar after tracking down the Internet Service Provider (IPS).
A special team of the CPLC and Karachi police raided on March 23, 2003 the house of Zufiqar with the assistance of Rawalpindi police and recovered the kids. Zulfiqar was allegedly arrested red-handed and two other accused were arrested an hour later on his lead.
They were initially charged with abduction. Their fourth accomplice, M. Ashraf, a Navy personnel, was shown absconder in the charge-sheet. The absconding accused sought a pre-arrest bail from the court.
