KARACHI, April 22: An anti-terrorism court acquitted on Tuesday four workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the killing case of four American employees of Union Texas Petroleum (UTP) and their Pakistani driver.
Judge Khan Pervaiz Chang of the ATC-4 acquitted Shahnawaz alias Ajmal Pahari, Mohammed Kashif, Faisal Iqbal and Waseem Javed as the prosecution could not establish its case against them.
The Americans — Ephraim Egbu, 42, senior auditor; Joel Enlow, 40, manager of audit projects; Larry Jennings, 49, audit manager; and Tracy Ritchie, 49, senior audit supervisor — and their driver, Anwar Mirza, 51, all employees of the Houston-based oil giant, Union Texas Petroleum, were killed on November 12, 1997 in the morning when their station wagon was ambushed by gunmen on PIDC bridge.
The American, all residents of Houston, had been in Karachi for two weeks doing the company’s annual audit.
Earlier, the ATC-4 had awarded capital punishment to two workers of the Muttahida in the same case.
Convicts Ahmed Saeed and Mohammed Aslam, however, moved an appeal against the conviction in the Sindh High Court, which set aside the judgment of the trial court and ordered the release of the accused.
Party chief Altaf Hussain, his secretary, Nadeem Nusrat, and a former party MPA, Anis Qaimkhani, were shown absconders in the charge sheet against Shahnawaz alias Ajmal Pahari and three others.
MURDER CASE: The same court acquitted an accused in a shop robbery-cum-murder case as there was no evidence against him on the record.
The judge had earlier sentenced two accused in the same case and the police had shown one of their accomplice, Meera, as absconder.
According to the prosecution, three bandits, including accused Fazal Mabood, entered Inshallah Bakery in Pirabad on July 7, 1999, and looted Rs12,000 after holding its proprietor, Azizullah, and his brother Hiyatullah hostage at gunpoint. The bakery proprietor raised alarm as the bandits, who had come in a rickshaw, were about to flee the scene. The fleeing bandits opened fire on Azizullah killing him instantly.
In his release order the judge observed that there was no evidence or identification of the accused, which could establish his identity. “The police have not collected any evidence against the accused and the SHO of Pirabad police station has chosen to remain absent.”
BOMB BLAST CASE: Judge Feroz Mahmood Bhatti of the anti- terrorism court No 2 put off the hearing of a bomb blast case against a worker of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi as the defence counsel did not turn up.
The judge, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison, Karachi, fixed April 24 for the next hearing of the case against Sabir Waseem.
The Aalmi worker has been charged with firing an anti-tank rocket (BM-107) that had pierced through a wall of Commerce College on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road on November 23, 2001.
This was the third consecutive time when defence counsel Amir Mansoob Qureshi did not turn up to attend the hearing. The judge had issued notice to him in the last hearing.