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Published 05 Dec, 2012 12:13am

Abbas Town blast: Two eyewitnesses identify ‘bomber’ in court

KARACHI, Dec 4: Two eyewitnesses picked out a suspected terrorist on Tuesday during an identification parade held before a judicial magistrate in the Abbas Town bomb blast case.

Two men were killed and several others wounded when a bomb attached to a motorcycle went off near an Imambargah in Abbas Town within the remit of the Sachal police station on Nov 18.

The suspect, Attaullah, who had been arrested by the CID, was produced in court for the identification parade in the Abbas Town blast case.

Judicial Magistrate (Malir) Naveed Asghar conducted the identification parade after completing legal formalities.

The suspect was lined up along with dummies and the court separately called witnesses in to identify him.

Both witnesses rightly identified the suspect and one of them deposed that the suspect was parking a motorcycle near the place of the incident and he [the witness] had tried to stop him [the suspect].

The other witness stated that he tried to run after the suspect when he escaped after parking the bike, but in the meantime the bomb exploded.

The names of the witnesses were not disclosed due to security reasons.

According to the prosecution, the suspect allegedly managed to park an explosives-laden motorcycle near the Imambargah in Abbas Town, where a Muharram Majlis was to be held, and he detonated it with a remote-controlled device killing Rizwan and Azhar Hussain and wounding a dozen of people, including some Rangers personnel.

A case (FIR 703/12) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 3/4 of the Explosive Substance Act read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

As the FIR was lodged under a relevant section of the ATA, the investigation agency was supposed to produce the suspect before an anti-terrorism court for remand.

However, court sources confirmed that the suspect in question was not produced in the ATC concerned in the present case.

The CID claimed to have arrested Attaullah after a shootout in Manghopir, recovered an explosives-laden car and also killed his accomplice Gul Mand.

Earlier, the suspect also told a court that his accomplice had planned to ram the explosives-laden vehicle into the containers placed on M.A. Jinnah Road and he was supposed to blow himself up in the main Ashura procession.

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