KARACHI, Nov 8: An anti-terrorism court reserved judgment on Monday in a petrol station blast case against an activist of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi.
Judge Aley Maqbool Rizvi of the ATC-2, who conducted the trial inside the Central Prison, fixed Nov 22 for the pronouncement of verdict after he heard final arguments from prosecution and defence attorneys.
Mohammed Atif alias Kamran, who is stated to be the local chief of the Aalmi, was prosecuted for planting an explosive device at a Shell petrol station in Gulberg on May 15, 2002.
Prosecutor Abdul Waheed Khan prayed to the court to award maximum punishment to the accused as the prosecution produced sufficient evidence in the case. He contended that the accused was duly identified by a prosecution witness.
Defence counsel Nadeem Shahzad Hashmi argued that the name of the prosecution witness, who identified the accused, was not mentioned in the FIR as such his testimony was not reliable.
Besides, he contended, it was humanly impossible to a person to identify an accused whom he had seen from a distance of 200 or 300 yards.
Over 20 bomb blasts took place at different petrol station on May 15, 2002. The cases were registered initially against unknown culprits.
Later, several activists of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi were charged with the blasts in different ATCs. The courts have already decided four cases, while an equal number of cases are pending disposal.
The same court had earlier acquitted a worker of the Aalmi in one of the petrol pump blast cases.
PW TURNS HOSTILE: A prosecution witness in a petrol pump blast case was declared hostile on the request of the prosecution when he did not support the case.
Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2 fixed Nov 11 for the next hearing after declaring the PW as hostile.
PW Abdul Khaliq, the cashier of the petrol pump, was the witness to the memo prepared at the time of inspection of side on the lead of the accused.
He, however, refused to identify the accused in the court and submitted that he could not say if the accused was the same person who led the police to the site of blast.
Special public prosecutor Maula Bux Bhatti requested the court to declare the prosecution witness hostile. He also requested the court to allow him to cross-examine the hostile witness.
The prosecutor suggested that the PW had been approached by the accused through some channel.
CONVOY ATTACK CASE: An anti-terrorism court adjourned the hearing of the corps commander convoy attack against 10 activists of the Al Jundullah as only two out 10 defence counsel turn up.
Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison, fixed Nov 12 for the next hearing.
Ataur Rehman alias Ibrahim, Shahzad Ahmed Bajwah, Yaqoob Saeed, Uzair Ahmed, Shoiab Siddiqui, Danish Inam, Najeebullah, Khurrum Saifullah, Shahzad Mukhtar and Khalid Rao were charged with a series of offences, including attack on the motorcade of Lt-Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, on June 10 on the old Clifton bridge, which resulted in the death of six army personnel, three policemen and a passerby.
Special public prosecutors - Maula Bux Bhatti and I. A. Hashmi - and defence counsel M. R. Syed and Mushtaq Ahmed were present.
The Jundullah men were charged with the offences under Sections 302, 324, 404 and 34 of PPC, Section 7 of the Anti-terrorist Act, 1997, and Section 3, 4 and 5 of the Explosive Act. Adnan Shah alias Tipu, Mohammed Qasim, Maaz, Shahab, Bilal, Tayyeb, Hammad and Fasih have been declared absconders.
Meanwhile, one of the defence counsel withdrew his power of attorney on Monday. The court appointed Asghar Ali as defence counsel on state expenses.
Under the law, court cannot proceed with the case unless all the accused are duly represented by their defence attorneys as the offences involved capital punishment.
One of the defence counsel is stated to have been observing Aitekaf. However, the court was not so far informed accordingly.