KARACHI, April 8: An anti-terrorism court on Monday extended the police remand of a PPP candidate on a National Assembly seat in Lyari till April 13 in the Arshad Pappu murder case.

The police also produced a wounded suspect, Abdul Rehman, in court on a stretcher and sought his remand. The court remanded him in police custody for five days.

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

The police claimed to have arrested suspect Abdul Rehman around a week ago and the court had asked the police to produce him in court.

However, he was not produced in court on the ground that he was being treated at a hospital.

On Monday, the investigation officer produced the suspect in court on a stretcher and sought his custody for interrogations. Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon of the ATC-III remanded him in police custody for five days.

The IO also asked the court to extend the physical remand of suspect Shahjehan, who is an undertrial prisoner (UTP) for further questioning. The court also extended the police remand of the UTP till April 13.

On April 1, the court had granted one-week remand of the suspect and asked the police to get the custody after sunrise and bring him back to prison before sunset.

Zubair Baloch, a brother of banned People’s Aman Committee chief Uzair Jan Baloch, and Zakir Dada have already been remanded in police custody in the present case till April 13.

However, the police had yet to produce another suspect, Inspector Yousuf Baloch, who was arrested in this case on April 3, and they claimed that he was wounded and being treated at a hospital.

According to the FIR lodged on a complaint of Pappu’s widow, the alleged gangster along with his brother, confident and 10-year-old son had gone to attend a party of a friend 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 his father and two others away, it said and added that 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 further stated 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 the Kalakot area after defacing and mutilating them 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, 1997 at the Kalakot police station.

Another witness abandoned in Shahzeb case

The prosecution in the Shahzeb murder case abandoned one more witness during the murder trial before an anti-terrorism court on Monday.

Kamil aka Kamran Siddiqui, a prosecution witness, was present in court on Monday, but the special public prosecutor said that the prosecution side was not interested in examining him as his evidence was of a formal type and gave up the witness.

Court sources said that the witness in question appeared to be reluctant to depose against the accused, as he remained absent on a couple of hearings and the court had also issued a warrant for his arrest.

The court adjourned the hearing till Tuesday since no other witness was present to testify, while the prosecutor also moved an application for adjournment due to his engagement in the high court.

Shahrukh Jatoi, Nawab Siraj Ali Talpur, his younger brother Nawab Sajjad Ali Talpur and their house servant Ghulam Murtaza Lashari have been charged with killing 20-year-old Shahzeb in Defence Housing Authority on the night of Dec 24, 2012.

The prosecution has so far examined 19 and abandoned 15 out of 53 witnesses.