HYDERABAD, Sept 2: The sixth additional district and sessions judge on Monday acquitted seven out of the remaining eight accused in the Hyderabad carnage case (Sept 30, 1998) after the court did not find any probability of the accused being convicted and the defence counsel, Hidayatullah Abbasi, pointed out anomalies in the confessional statements of the present accused, recorded by the magistrates.

According to Mr Abbasi those acquitted included Karim Bux, Ahsan Ali, Mohammad Hashim, Ghulam Sarwar, Abdul Hameed Memon, Abdullah Memon and Mohammad Ali. Only one Mazhar Memon has to face trial now.

Mr Abbasi brought on record the attested copies of statements of the then magistrates, the late Allah Dino Sangrasi and Rehmatullah Qureshi and Gulfam Mohiyuddin.

He said that the magistrates had handed over the accused back to the same police who had produced them before the magistrates, which was unlawful as the accused should have been remanded to judicial custody through other police.

He argued that the three magistrates in their statements before the Suppression of Terrorist Activities Court, Karachi, had deposed that they did not tell the accused that they were magistrates.

The counsel pointed out that no certificates were given by the magistrates and one of them admitted that the condition of the accused was pathetic.

He stated that one of the magistrates had said that he had conducted an identification parade of the accused in cantonment.

Disputing the validity of the identification parade, he said that one of the witnesses, Abdul Rasheed, after identifying the accused, Abdullah Memon, had retracted his statement in his testimony that it was a subedar who pointed his finger at the accused so that he could identify him in court.

He said that in view of these facts, the identification parade and confessional statements did not carry any weight for their conviction and there was no likelihood of the accused being convicted. The accused were on bail, which was granted by the Sindh High Court.

The defence counsel had filed an application on behalf of the accused under section 265-K CrPC on Aug 27 and arguments were heard by the judge on Monday.

The court on July 25 had exonerated 33 accused of the same case, including Dr Qadir Magsi, chairman, Sindh Tarraqi Passand Party, and his other party leaders under section 265-K of the code of criminal procedure.

On Sept 30, 1988 unidentified armed occupants of vehicles struck in different parts of the city simultaneously and opened fire on the people resulting in more than 250 people being massacred within 15 minutes.