KARACHI, July 12: The prosecution rested its case on Thursday after examining seven witnesses in a sectarian killing case.

Mohammad Ajmal, better known as Akram Lahori, the alleged chief of banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, and Mohammad Attaullah, alias Qasim, have been booked in a 2002 murder case of property dealer Irfan Haider within the remit of the North Nazimabad police station.

The investigating officer, Ghulam Rasool Rajpar, the last prosecution witness, appeared before an anti-terrorism court on Thursday and testified that he conducted the investigation of the case, inspected the place of the incident and arrested the accused, adding that a judicial magistrate on his application conducted the identification parade of the accused in which two eyewitnesses identified them. He further deposed that he also got statements of eyewitnesses recorded through the magistrate under section 164 (power to record statements and confessions) of the criminal procedure code.

The IO said that he prepared memos, recorded statements of witnesses under Section 161 (examination of witnesses by police) of the CrPC and, after completing the investigation, he charge-sheeted the accused.

During the cross examination, the defence counsel asked him if news and pictures of the accused had appeared in the newspapers a day after their arrest. The IO replied that the news was published but he did not remember the publication of pictures in the print media.

After giving his statement, the public prosecutor informed the court that the prosecution had closed its side.

Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon of the ATC-III, who is conducting the trial inside the central prison because of security concerns, adjourned the hearing till July 19 for statements of the accused.

According to the prosecution, Irfan Haider, was sitting along with a friend outside the Zohra estate agency in North Nazimabad in February 2002 when two assailants riding a motorbike targeted him and escaped. The police arrested the suspects on June 29, 2002 within the remit of the Defence police station in some other cases and during interrogation they allegedly disclosed that they were also involved in the killing of the property dealer, it added.

A case (FIR no.180/2002) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997.

Meanwhile, the same court recorded on Thursday testimonies of two prosecution witnesses in the murder case of a policeman.

Mohammad Ajmal, alias Akram Lahori, and his two aides Attaullah and Mohammad Azam, alias Sharif, have been charged with killing police constable Faiz-ul-Islam and injuring his colleague Naimat Khan in March 2002 within the remit of the Korangi Industrial Area police station when the policemen were randomly checking motorists and riders on a road. The reader of judicial magistrate Bashir Channa and a medico-legal officer (MLO) appeared before the court and recorded their statements.

The reader produced the documents of an identification parade in which two witnesses identified the accused and recognised the signatures of Mr Channa.

The judicial magistrate has retired from judicial services and remains untraceable.

The MLO said that he conducted the post-mortem on the deceased and the death caused due to firearm injures.

A case (FIR 143/2002) was registered under Sections 302 and 324 (attempted murder), 353 (criminal force to deter public servant form discharge of his duty), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 34 of the PPC read with Section 7 of the ATA.