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KARACHI, April 16: An anti-terrorism court formally arraigned on Tuesday two workers of the defunct Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) in a case pertaining to massacre of 10 faithfuls in a mosque.
Denying charges against them, Dilawar alias Dildar and Saeed Awan, however, pleaded “not guilty” when Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon of the ATC-2 formally framed charges on them.
Nine people were killed and five injured, one of them fatally, when the worshippers were sprayed with bullets during Fajr prayers at Hur Mosque in Al-Falah Colony, off Shahrea-i-Faisal.
Those killed in the incident included Syed Ejaz Hussain Kazmi, 50; Syed Zulfiqar Anwar Taqvi, 45; Mohammad Nawaz, 50; Syed Husnain Naqvi, 53; Syed Safdar Abbas Naqvi, 21; Jamshed Abbas, 35; Nazeer Ahmed, 55; Imtiaz Husain, 18 and Amjad Ali, 18. Syed Hasnain Naqvi and Syed Safdar Abbas Naqvi were father and son, respectively. The wounded included Ghulam Hussain (Pesh Imam), Syed Tasweer Hussain (Moazzan), Mohammad Anwar and Altaf Hussain.
Accused Saeed had earlier been sentenced to death for killing DSP Sadiq Hussain and his son, while accused Dilawar is facing trial in at least five sectarian murder cases.
Following the framing of the charge on the two SSP workers, the special public prosecutor, Mazhar Qayyum, produced two prosecution witnesses — Altaf Hussain, who was wounded in the attack, and a judicial magistrate.
PW Altaf Hussain deposed before the court that he was standing in last of the two rows of faithfuls at the time of incident. He said he saw two attackers opening fire on the worshippers.
The judge put off the hearing of the case till Wednesday after the depositions of the two witnesses.
JUDGMENT RESERVED: The same court reserved till 20th the judgment in a kidnapping for ransom case after hearing the final arguments from the prosecution and defence.
Masroof alias Setha and Muhammed Shaukat have been prosecuted for kidnapping a seven-year-old boy, Muhammed Younus son of Muhammed Hanif, for ransom.
According to prosecution, Masroof, the servant of Hanif, a factory owner, planned the kidnapping. On January 9, he took the boy along with him and handed him over to his accomplice, Shaukat.
Later, the kidnappers allegedly demanded Rs2.5 million as ransom for the release of the boy. However, inspector Amjad Hussain, the then SHO of the Baloch Colony police, arrested the accused persons on January 11 and recovered the victim from a house in Azam Basti.
