KARACHI, April 12: An anti-terrorism court put off the hearing of the Frenchmen killing case on Saturday after recording the statements of three prosecution witnesses, including the complainant in the case.

Judge Feroz Mahmood Bhatti of the ATC-2, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison Karachi, fixed April 15 for the next hearing after recording the testimonies of Dr Sajida Qureshi and Dr Mohammed Akhtar Raja, medicolegal officers, and Kamran Fazal, the complainant employee of the Pakistan Navy.

Mohammed Asif Zaheer and Rizwanullah, who were allegedly trained in a camp of the Harkat Jihad-i-Islami in Afghanistan, are being prosecuted on a charge of killing 11 French naval engineers and two Pakistanis in a suicide bomb attack last year.

The French engineers, who were helping Pakistan build its Agosta 90-B submarines, were killed when an explosives-laden vehicle rammed into their bus outside Sheraton hotel.

Accused Asif Zaheer is being represented by M. R. Syed and Rizwanullah by Gohar Iqbal. Special public prosecutors Maula Bux Bhatti and Mazhar Qayyum are appearing on behalf of the state.

The bus of the Pak Navy, carrying the French engineers, was about to move in front of Sheraton Hotel on Club Road in the morning, when a red car stopped beside the bus and blew up with a bang, destroying it completely and causing damage to shops on the ground floors of Pearl Continental and Sheraton hotels.

The complainant deposed that he had set out with the Pak Navy bus from Dockyard in the morning. He said the bus picked up 18 Frenchmen at Avari Towers Hotel around 7:20am and it arrived at Sheraton Hotel around 7:35am.

The PW stated that as five Frenchmen got into the bus at Sheraton Hotel, a red car rammed into it with a bang. He said he fell unconscious after the explosion.

The PW was also cross-examined by the two defence counsel.