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KARACHI, Feb 5: An anti-terrorism court reserved on Friday judgment in a kidnapping for ransom case against an accused. The judge fixed Feb 9 for the pronouncement of the judgement after he heard final arguments form the prosecution and defence attorneys.
According to prosecution, four accused - Zahid Makrani, Jhangir Makrani, Bbab and Shahzad Makrani - kidnapped Hasan Javed, three-year-old son of Javed Iqbal, on Dec 9, last year, from Iqbal Centre, a residential-cum-commercial plaza on the M. A. Jinnah Road.
The accused demanded Rs50,000 from the victim's father on phone. They allegedly asked him to deliver the money at a place in Chakiwara.
It was alleged that when Javed reached the agreed spot in a car, the four accused approached the car and received the ransom from him. They asked him to wiat for the child there and left. The accused again appeared with the abducted child in the lap of accused Shahzad.
As Shahzad handed over the child to Javed, the plain-clothed policemen nabbed him red-handed and recovered a pistol and Rs5,000 from the accused. His three other accomplices ran into the narrow lanes of the vicinity as they saw their accomplice being arrested.
DOCTOR BROTHERS' CASE: Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2 put off the hearing of the case against doctor brothers after recording the statement of a defence witness.
The judge, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison, fixed Feb 10 for the next hearing after the statement of Hamza Ali Khan, a reporter of an Urdu daily.
The journalist, who was summoned by the court on an application of the defence, verified the reports which appeared regarding the two brothers.
The defence witness was briefly cross-examined by special public prosecutor, Iqtedar Ali Hashmi.
The doctor brothers are being represented by Ilyas Khan and Shaukat Hayat.
Dr Akmal Waheed, a cardiologist, and his younger brother Dr Arshad Waheed, a kidney surgeon, are facing a series of charges, including those pertaining to providing medical treatment to Al Qaeda activists and other terrorists, and for sending people to Wana for terrorist training.
The two defendants have been charged with financing, harbouring and treating the activists of the Jundullah. The police announced the arrest of the Waheeds on July 2, while the family claimed that they had been picked up on June 17.
According to the police, some Jundullah activists, arrested for their involvement in an attack on the corps commander's convoy, besides other terrorist activities, stated that the doctor brothers had close links with them (terrorists).
The two doctors were given into police custody for interrogation in the corps commander's convoy attack and Rangers' killing cases. However, later, they were exonerated from the charges in the two cases and the Gulshan-i-Iqbal police booked them in a fresh case on July 15 under Sections 201, 211 and 216 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Sections 21-C, 21-J and 11-M of the Anti-terrorism Act for financing, assisting, harbouring and treating the activists of the banned Judhullah.
According to prosecution, the two doctors sent two activists of Jundullah, Shahzad Ahmed Bajwah and Mohammed Qasim, to Wana for terrorist training. They also allegedly used to give shelter to Jundullah and Al-Qaeda activists, who included Abu Massab, Gul Hasan and Hassam Al-Saim.
The doctor brothers were also charged with providing medical treatment to Shahzad Ahmed Bajwah and other Jundullah activists, who were injured during an attack on a Rangers' mobile under the Baloch Colony bridge.
INDICTED: Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-3 indicted an accused for kidnapping and killing his own nephew in January this year.
Accused Mohammad Tariq, however, denied the charge of kidnapping Mohammad Siddique, six, and pleaded "not guilty" when the judge formally arraigned him in the case.
It was alleged that the accused kidnapped the child from outside his house in Korangi on Jan 1, 2005, and demanded Rs1.5 million for his release.
Later, he was arrested after the police traced his phone calls. During interrogation, he disclosed that he killed the boy and buried him in an empty plot after failing to receive ransom.
The judge fixed Feb 7 for recording the statement of the prosecution witnesses.
