KARACHI: Hearing in blast case put off

Published February 17, 2006

KARACHI, Feb 16: An anti-terrorism court adjourned on Thursday the hearing of a bomb blast case against four workers of the banned Jundullah group as the prosecution witness did not turn up.

Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2 fixed Feb 22 for the next hearing after he was told that the investigation officer of the case could not bring the prosecution witness to the court.

Ataur Rehman, Shahzad Bajwah, Danish Imam and Uzair Ahmed, represented by defence counsel M R Syed, have been charged with carrying out the blast, which also claimed the life of a man.

According to prosecution, the accused planted a bomb in a snatched Suzuki Margalla (AB-0657) and parked it near Marina Club on the Zulfiqar Street, Defence Housing Authority, Phase 8, on April 10, 2004. The bomb went off at 10:30pm and three occupants of a Toyota Corolla (ABJ-020) were injured. One of the injured, Farrukh Zareen Khan Afridi, died on way to hospital. The two other injured were Muzaffar Gobi and his cousin Abu Sufiyan.

Accused Shahzad Bajwa had allegedly snatched the Margalla from Rashid Ali Khan in Gulshan-i-Iqbal hours before the bomb blast. The prosecution, represented by special public prosecutor Maula Bux Bhatti, has, so far, examined 11 out of total 25 prosecution witnesses.