KARACHI, Aug 17: An anti-terrorism court indicted on Tuesday a London-born doctor in a case pertaining to distribution of pamphlets inscribed with anti-US and anti-Jewish material.
The 30-year old dentist, Dr Ismail Shaikh, denied the charges, read out to him by Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-III, and pleaded "not guilty". According to prosecution, the doctor, a member of Palestine-based proscribed organisation, Hizbul Tehreer, was arrested while distributing pamphlets in front of a mosque in Clifton after Isha prayers on July 7.
The judge ordered special public prosecutor, Naimat Ali Randhawa, to examine prosecution witnesses on Wednesday. The doctor had recently come from London and was residing in Nazimabad.
He first came here in 1999 and married his cousin. Later, he divorced his wife in 2002 and left for London. He solemnized his second marriage in London and returned here few month ago.
MURDER CASE: Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-III adjourned till Aug 19 the hearing of a kidnapping-cum-murder case after recording the statement of a prosecution witness.
Shafqat Hussain has been charged with the kidnapping a seven- year-old boy for ransom and later killing him. The prosecution witness, Mohammed Hanif Adam, was also cross-examined by the defence counsel.
The accused was the watchman of Nadeem Arcade and he allegedly kidnapped Umair on April 10, this year around 5:30pm as he came downstairs from his second-floor flat.
According to prosecution, the watchman took the boy to his room. He hit the victim's head with a club when the boy insisted to leave the room. The boy died instantly and the watchman dumped the body in the room.
The accused contacted the family on phone and demanded Rs500,000 from victim's father, Mohammed Hanif, a car dealer, for Omair's release. The next night he disposed of the body in a nearby drain.
The alleged kidnapper kept on calling the victim's family from different public call offices. He also called the car dealer twice at different places to deliver the ransom, though he himself never turned up.
Finally, he asked the victim's father to place the money under a wooden box lying inside the compound of Nadeem Arcade. This led to his arrest on May 21 as the police found the box belonging to the watchman.