KARACHI, Jan 14: An anti-terrorism court indicted on Saturday a suspected militant in a case pertaining to a 2004 attack on the convoy of the then Karachi corps commander.

Mohammad Qasim Toori, said to be associated with the proscribed Jundullah, along with his convicted and absconding accomplices has been booked and arrested for organising and carrying out an attack on the convoy of the then Karachi corps commander in June 2004 within the remit of the Boat Basin police station.

Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso of the ATC-I, who is conducting the trial inside the Karachi central prison for security considerations, read out a set of charges, including hatching a criminal conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, bomb explosion, creating a sense of fear and terror among the masses, etc, against the accused.

However, the accused pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the charges.

The court summoned the prosecution witnesses and directed them to record their testimonies on Jan 28.

According to the prosecution, accused Qasim Toori along with his associates had launched an attack on the convoy of Lt-Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, the then Karachi corps commander, near the Clifton Bridge on June 10, 2004. The accused took position around the bridge and ambushed the convoy with heavy weapons as it approached the bridge on their way to the corps headquarters followed by a bomb blast, it added.

Eleven people, including a colonel, six soldiers and three policemen, were killed and 12 others wounded in the incident. However the corps commander remained unhurt during the ambush.

A case (FIR 165/04) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 404 (dishonest misappropriation of property possessed by deceased person at the time of his death), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Sections 3, 4 & 5 of the Explosive Substance Act read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Eleven other accused — Atta-ur-Rehman alias Ibrahim, Shahzad Ahmed Bajwah, Yaqoob Saeed Khan, Uzair Ahmed alias Abdullah, Shoaib Siddiqui, Danish Inam, Najeebullah, Khurrum Saifullah, Shahzad Mukhtar, Khalid Rao and Adnan Shah — have already been sentenced to death by an ATC in the present case in February 2006.

Shahab, Bilal, Tayyab and Hammad were the absconding accused.

Qasim Toori and his other associates were arrested on Jan 29, 2008 after a gun battle with the police and other law-enforcing agencies in the Shah Latif area.

Meanwhile, the same court on Saturday allowed an application for clubbing together of four cases against Toori and others and adjourned the hearing for Jan 28 for indictment.

Public Prosecutor Abdul Maroof moved the application under Section 235 (trial for more than one offence) of the criminal procedure code stating that three cases registered against the accused under the Pakistan Arms Ordinance, 1965 were connected to the main case registered against Toori and others pertaining to the gun battle with the law-enforcing agencies in Shah Latif Town.

He requested the court to club together these cases for a joint trial. The defence counsel, Mushtaq Ahmed, did not oppose the plea.