KARACHI: An antiterrorism court issued on Saturday production order for 11 convicted militants belonging to the banned outfit Jundullah in a bank robbery-cum-murder case.

The ATC-VI judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the Central Jail Karachi, directed the prison superintendent to produce the undertrial prisoners on the next date.

Mohammad Qasim Toori and Danish, alias Talha, and Abid Ali, who are said to be associated with banned militant outfit Jundullah, along with their absconding accomplices have been accused of allegedly looting Rs5.03 million from a bank in October 2007 in Saudabad.

Police booked Qasim Toori; Ataur Rehman, alias Ibrahim; Shahzad Ahmed Bajwa; Yaqoob Saeed; Uzair Ahmed; Shoaib Siddiqui; Danish Inam; Najeebullah; Khurrum Saifullah; Shahzad Mukhtar; Khalid Rao and Adnan Shah.

They had allegedly killed three persons — a policeman, a security guard and a passer-by — during the bank robbery and fled.

On Saturday, the judge took serious exception of the failure of the prison authorities in producing the suspects despite issuance of repeated directives to ensure their presence.

The prison officials said that the custody of the suspects, who had been sentenced to death in the high-profile case pertaining to attack on the convoy of the corps commander Karachi in 2004, was shifted to Hyderabad following security threats. Therefore, their custody could not be produced in the court, they added.

The judge observed that the case was being delayed for long due to non-production of the undertrial prisoners and directed the prison chief to ensure their presence in court on the next date.

A case (FIR No. 223/07) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 396 (dacoity with murder), 397 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act at the Saudabad police station.

The accused were arrested on Jan 29, 2008 in major shoot-outs with the police and other law enforcing agencies in Shah Latif and Landhi areas, which had left two policemen and four suspects dead.

Earlier, in February 2006, an antiterrorism court sentenced 11 detained and absconding activists of the banned Jundullah to death in the corps commander convoy attack case.

The court also awarded them multiple terms of rigorous imprisonment on other charges.

The suspects were charged with a series of offences, including attack on the motorcade of the then corps commander, Lt-Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, on June 10, 2004, on the old Clifton bridge, which resulted in death of six army personnel, three policemen and a passer-by.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2018