KARACHI, April 5: An anti-terrorism court on Friday remanded two suspects in police custody for 10 days in the Arshad Pappu murder case.

Alleged Lyari gangster Arshad Pappu, his brother Yasir Arafat and their confidant Juma Shera were killed on the night of March 16.

The police produced the two suspects — Zubair Baloch, a brother of banned People’s Amn Committee chief Uzair Jan Baloch, and Zakir Dada — before Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon of the ATC-III, but did not bring a third suspect, Inspector Yousuf Baloch, and stated that he sustained bullet wounds during a shootout and was under treatment at a hospital.

The suspects were shown to have been arrested on April 3 in the remand papers and the investigation officer sought their police remand for interrogation.

The court remanded the two suspects in police custody and directed the IO to produce them on the next hearing along with a progress report.

However, the police request regarding the remand of the third suspect was not allowed, as the court ruled that the remand could not be granted without the physical presence of the suspect.

A few days earlier, the police had also moved a similar application for the remand of another suspect, Abdul Rehman, said to be under treatment, in the present case, and the court directed the police for production of the suspect. However, the police have not yet produced him in court for remand.

On April 1, the court had allowed an application of the police to interrogate Shahjehan Baloch, an undertrial prisoner and a PPP candidate for a national assembly constituency, NA-248, for one week in the present case.

According to the FIR lodged on a complaint of Arshad Pappu’s widow, the alleged gangster along with his brother, confidant and 10-year-old son had gone to attend a party in Defence Housing Authority on the night of March 16. The boy came back around midnight and informed his mother that around 20 men in two vehicles came to the flat in Defence and took away his father and two others, it added.

It was further stated in the FIR that Arshad Pappu’s son managed to identify Zubair Baloch, Noor Mohammad alias Baba Ladla, his brother Zahid Ladla, Asif, Faisal Pathan and Zakir Dada as alleged abductors.

The complainant said in the FIR that the victims were killed after being subjected to torture and the bodies of her husband and his brother were thrown in manholes in Kalakot after being mutilated and alleged that the offence was committed at the behest of Shahjehan Baloch.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 297 (trespassing on burial place, etc.), 392 (punishment for robbery), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act at the Kalakot police station.

Arshad Pappu was booked in around 60 cases including murder, kidnapping, attempted murder, illicit weapons, extortion, etc. However, he was never convicted in any case. He was released in Feb 2012 from a prison in Balochistan.

He was acquitted in what appeared to be the last case against him in Feb 2012 pertaining to the murder of Faiz Mohammad alias Mama Fazu, a transporter and father of Uzair Jan Baloch, who was murdered in January 2003 in Chakiwara.