KARACHI, Dec 18: The appeal of an accused, convicted and sentenced in the murder case of four persons, including policemen, will be referred to a referee judge as one member of an appellate bench differed on the issue of conviction or acquittal of one of the accused, while both the judges acquitted the rest of the accused.

An anti-terrorism appellate (ATA) bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, heard and reserved judgment in the murder case of Rashid Aziz and Kashif Aziz, sons of deputy superintendent of police Azizur Rahman, Arshad Baig and Mohammed Javed, driver and gunman, employees of the Sindh police. The alleged incident occurred on 11-7-1997 when unidentified armed men opened fire on the deceased while they were boarding a vehicle after offering Friday prayers in Al-Falah police limits.

Asif Jameel, Ateeq Azam, Arshad, Khurram Mehfooz, Shabbir Ahmed and Waseem, all stated to be workers and supporters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, were arrested in this case and were tried by an ATC.

They were convicted and sentenced to death by the trial court on a charge of quadruple murder.

The case against the accused was tried initially in a military court in 1999 where witnesses recorded their testimonies. Later, it was tried in anti- terrorism court-IV, Karachi, whose Judge Qamaruddin Bohra sentenced all the accused to death on June 15, 1999.

The convicted accused preferred an appeal before the ATA bench of the SHC.

The bench heard and reserved its judgment which was announced on Wednesday by another bench of the SHC comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery.

According to the judgment, main accused Asif Jamil was convicted and sentenced by one judge while all the remaining accused were acquitted by him. The other member of the bench acquitted all the accused, including Asif Jamil.

As the bench differed in judgment, the appeal will now be heard by a referee judge.— APP/PPI