KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday indicted 18 persons in a double murder case.
Abdul Bashar Bengali, Kamran Madhuri, Sohail Commando, Moshin, Iftikhar, Irfan, Subhan, Shahjehan, Allahuddin, Mushtaq Khatri, Jabbar Zafar and others have been charged with allegedly attacking the house of Ashiq Ali Chandio of the Sindh Dost Party in Chakra Goth, kidnapping his nephew and killing his two other relatives in August 2011.
Judge Mohammad Javed Alam of the ATC-V, who was conducting the trial inside the central prison, read out the charges against the accused. But they pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case. The court summoned prosecution witnesses with direction to record their testimonies on Feb 15.
A case (FIR No 433/2011) was registered under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage etc.), 324 (attempted murder), 302 (premeditated murder), 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of Anti-terrorism Act at the Zaman Town police station.
Kidnap for ransom
Another anti-terrorism court remanded two suspects to prison in a case pertaining to the kidnapping of a young woman for ransom.
Police produced Umer and Imran in court after the expiry of their physical remand on Saturday. The ATC-II judge sent them to prison on judicial remand till Feb 1 and directed the investigating officer to submit a charge-sheet against them.
According to the prosecution, the 21-year-old victim had been abducted from the car park of a cinema in Defence Housing Authority on Jan 8. The kidnappers had demanded Rs10 million for her safe release.
Later, the police managed to recover the captive after a shoot-out with the kidnappers in which one of their accomplices, Farhan, was killed, it added.
Meanwhile, the same court remanded till Feb 8 a suspect in police custody in cases pertaining to possession of explosive substance, illicit weapon and an encounter with police.
The police said they arrested Ameeruddin in New Karachi after a shootout and found explosive material and unlicensed weapon in his possession on Jan 24. It alleged that the suspect affiliated with a political party was involved in targeted killing.