KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Monday recorded the testimony of a prosecution witness in a case pertaining to alleged recovery of illicit arms and explosives from Nine Zero, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s headquarters in Azizabad.

Fourteen suspects — including Faisal Mehmood, alias Mota; Ubaid, alias K-2; Basheer Ahmed, alias Farman — have been charged with possessing illicit arms, ammunition and explosives recovered during their arrest from the party’s headquarters in March 2015 within the remit of the Azizabad police station.

On Monday, the matter came up before the ATC-XVII judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, when the Rangers prosecutor produced a witness to record his testimony.

The witness, Inspector Javed Yousufzai, deposed that he was posted as station house officer at the Supermarket police station, when he was assigned the investigation of a case regarding the unlicensed weapons recovered during the raid.

He further deposed that the recovered weapons were sent to the forensic science laboratory for ballistic analysis, which found that the arms had been used.

The witness further testified that he also recorded the statements of eyewitnesses and submitted charge sheet with the court after completing legal formalities.

After recording his statement, the judge fixed the matter for July 18 for cross-examination of the witness by the defence counsel for the detained accused.

According to the prosecution, the paramilitary force arrested MQM senior leader Amir Khan and 26 other armed suspects, including Faisal Mehmood, alias Mota, who had been sentenced to death in absentia in the journalist Wali Babar murder case, during the pre-dawn raid on March 11, 2015.

It also claimed to have recovered illegal arms, ammunition and explosives and registered around a dozen cases under Section 23-1(a) of the Sindh Arms Act, 2013, Sections 4/5 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Azizabad police station.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2019