KARACHI, Oct 29: An anti-terrorism appellate bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Justice Qaiser Iqbal and Justice Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi on Wednesday adjourned till Thursday the hearing of an appeal filed by two convicts of the Sheraton Hotel blast case.
The convicts, Asif Zaheer and Mohammad Rizwan, members of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen group, were sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court on June 30, 2003. Eleven French naval engineers and two other persons were killed in the blast.
The convicts were found to have masterminded the suicide carbomb attack to blow up a bus carrying the victims near Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in May 2002.
The appellants’ counsel, advocate Mohammad Farooq, on Wednesday read out the statements of around 20 witnesses of the case, and argued that the prosecution produced two eyewitness — Lal Sherry, driver of the bus, and Fazal Karim, an official of the Pakistan Navy — who said in their statements that they had not seen the accused at the scene of the crime. Another eyewitness, the counsel added, Zafar Iqbal had also deposed that he had seen the accused somewhere in Defence area, and not at the scene of the crime.
According to prosecution, the Pakistan Navy bus carrying the French engineers was about to move towards the Club Road in the morning when an explosives-laden vehicle was rammed into their bus near the Sheraton Hotel.
The court will record final arguments on the appeal on Thursday.
Kidnap, killing case
The administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts, Karachi, Justice Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, on Wednesday sent a suspect into jail custody till Nov 13 for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and killing of his friend, and directed the investigation officer to submit the charge-sheet of the case till next hearing.
According to the prosecution, accused Faheem had called his friend, Saeed Ali, from Landhi area on Oct 13 and detained him. Later, he reportedly collected a ransom of Rs3 million from the victim’s family and killed him. The police registered a case against the suspect on the complaint of the Fahad Ali, father of the victim, and later arrested Faheem.
Order reserved
The additional district and sessions court, east, on Wednesday reserved its order on the acquittal plea moved by a co-accused in the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case.
Mir Murtaza Bhutto, leader of his faction of the Pakistan People’s Party known as PPP-Shaheed Bhutto, was killed along with his close aide, Ashique Hussain Jatoi, and six other workers and supporters in a shootout with police on Sept 20, 1996 near his Clifton residence.
The court recorded arguments on the plea moved by the co-accused, the then SP, Shakeeb Qureshi, under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code. His counsel argued that the prosecution has failed to produce any solid evidence against his client to prove his involvement in the case.
The counsel for the widow of Ashique Hussain Jatoi, Sarfaraz Khan Tanoli, argued that the acquittal plea was not maintainable at this stage, and asserted that the prosecution had presented enough evidence against the applicant’s involvement in the murder.
He further submitted that the applicant had left abroad shortly after the incident and the court had declared him absconder. He returned home after a period of about 11 years and eventually the court concerned had condoned his personal appearance in the hearings. He then managed to get bail in collaboration with the then government despite the fact that bail could not be granted once the process of Section 87 (proclamation for persons absconding) and Section 88 (attachment of property of person absconding) of the CrPC was completed, the counsel added.
The special public prosecutor, Mazhar Qayyum, did not oppose the acquittal plea, stating that there was no evidence against the applicant in the last charge-sheet.
Senior police officials, including Shoaib Suddle, Wajid Durrani, Masood Sharif, Shahid Hayat, Rai Mohammed Tahir, Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani and Agha Mohammed Jameel had also been nominated as accused in the case. Another accused, Asif Ali Zardari, was acquitted in the case when the Sindh High Court accepted his revision plea on April 9, 2008.
The next hearing of Shakeeb Qureshi’s plea will be held on Nov 1.
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