KARACHI, Jan 7: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday indicted a suspected militant of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) in the murder case of a local transporter, who supplied fuel to Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Ziauddin alias Khan Mohammad alias Siddiq, the suspected member of proscribed LJ, has been booked and arrested for his alleged involvement in kidnapping and killing Shaukat Afridi within the remit of the Boat Basin police station in Sept 2008.

Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon of the ATC-III, who is conducting the trial inside the Karachi central prison due to security concerns, read out the charges against the suspect. However, he pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.

The court summoned all prosecution witnesses with a direction to record their statements on Jan 17.

According to the prosecution, the accused along with his accomplices abducted a local transporter, Shaukat Afridi, in Clifton on May 9, 2008 and demanded a ransom of Rs5 million for his safe release. However, they allegedly killed the captive and the body was recovered from the rubble of a house in Saeedabad on Sept 26, 2008 when the accused detonated hand grenades in their hideout following a police raid, which killed three other accused.

A case (FIR 152/2008) was registered under Sections 365-A (kidnapping for ransom), 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Boat Basin police station on a complaint of the deceased’s brother.

In 2010, the same court had handed down death sentence to an LJ militant, Raheemullah alias Naeem alias Ali Hasan Ali Hasan, in this case.

The present accused, Ziauddin, was arrested after Raheemullah’s conviction.

Meanwhile, the same court on Saturday deferred till Jan 17 five cases pertaining to sectarian killings and possessing illicit weapons against alleged chief of banned LJ, Akram Lahori, and others due to absence of the defence counsel till Jan 17.

Mohammad Ajmal, better known as Akram Lahori, and his aides Mohammad Attaullah alias Qasim and Mohammad Azam alias Sharif have been charged in the cases registered against them in 2002.

‘SMP man’ to be indicted on 23rd

Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso of the ATC-I on Saturday supplied copies of evidence to a suspected militant of banned Sipah-i-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) allegedly involved in an explosive substance case.Muntazir Imam has been booked and arrested for allegedly keeping explosive material.

The court, which was conducting the trial inside the prison, supplied copies as required under Section 265-C (supply of statements and documents to accused) of the criminal procedure code and would indict him on Jan 23.

A case (FIR 225/11) was registered under Section 4/5 of the Explosive Substance Act read with Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act, 1997 at the Crime Investigation Department police station. The CID arrested the suspect in May last year.