KARACHI, Oct 8: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday indicted six men in eight cases pertaining to kidnapping for ransom and unlicensed weapons.

Jahanzeb, Syed Barkatullah, Fazl-e-Rabbi, Iftikhar Ali, Syed Moosa Bacha and Israr Gul have been charged in two cases with abducting Khurram and Mohammad Sharif within the remit of the Gizri police station in March 2009 and demanding a ransom for their release.

They were also booked in six cases for keeping illicit weapons.

The judge of the ATC-III, Ghulam Mustafa Memon, read out the charges against the accused.

However, they pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the cases.

The court summoned prosecution witnesses, directing them to record their statements on Oct 26.

According to the prosecution, the accused allegedly kidnapped Khurram in Defence Housing Authority on March 14, 2009 and demanded a ransom of Rs50 million.

In the second case, the same set of accused also allegedly abducted Mohammad Sharif in DHA on March 26 and demanded a ransom of Rs10 million for the release of the captive.Acting on a tip-off, the Anti-Violent Crime Cell carried out a raid on a building in a Gizri locality on the night of March 27 and arrested the suspects and recovered the captives from their custody.

The police also found unlicensed weapons in their possession.

Two cases (FIR 138/09 and 144/09) were registered under Sections 365-A (kidnapping to extort property etc) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act at the Gizri police station.

The accused were also booked under Section 13-D of the Pakistan Arms Ordinance, 1965.