KARACHI, Dec 5: A number of persons arrested for their alleged involvement in bomb attacks on Muharram processions on three consecutive days in 2009 and for planning to attack mourning processions in 2008 have not yet been brought to justice due to poor investigation, negligence or lack of interest of security agencies in the cases, it emerged on Monday.

Four cases against as many accused related to the 2009 bomb attacks have been gathering dust at an anti-terrorism court since the escape of three of them — Mohammad Shaqib Farooqi, Murtaza alias Shakil and Mohammad Wazir — from the city courts and the killing of their accomplice Murad Shah during a shootout with police.

More than 45 people were killed and many others wounded in one of the attacks on Muharram processions in the city in December 2009.

The anti-terrorism court issued lifetime warrants for the arrest of the three accused and directed the police to arrest them and produce in court as soon as possible.

The police and their special investigation cells have been clueless about the whereabouts of the accused so far though they recently claimed to have arrested their five accomplices who had attacked police on the court premises on July 19 last year and got freed the arrested accused. The police said the recently held five suspects were also involved in the twin blasts that had killed over 30 participants of the Chehlum mourning procession in February 2010.

Last year, the law enforcers had said that the four suspects arrested after a shootout on Hawkesbay Road on Jan 23 were hardened criminals and affiliated with the banned militant outfit Jundullah.

Yet the authorities had neither made a request for their trial inside jail for security reasons nor provided proper security while taking them to the city courts, which seemed to be criminal negligence on the part of jail and security authorities.

The four suspected militants were said to have confessed to their involvement in the bomb attacks on the Muharram processions in December 2009.

They were charge-sheeted and the administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts in Karachi sent the cases to ATC-III for trial and the trial court supplied copies of documents to the suspects under Section 265-C of the criminal procedure code. But they fled before their indictment.

Hardly a couple of weeks ago, the police and law-enforcement agencies suffered another setback when a sessions court acquitted four suspected militants in as many cases related to illicit weapons and explosive material due to poor investigation and constant absence of the investigation officer and police officials who were cited as witnesses in the charge-sheet.

The crime investigation department (CID) of police had arrested Syed Mohammed Waseem alias Imran, Mohammed Aijaz alias Abdul Rehman, Jamil Ahmed alias Wazir Akbar, Mohammed Hamid alias Qasim and a would-be suicide bomber, Aziz Ahmed alias Mohammed Khan, said to be associated with a banned militant outfit, in New Karachi on the eve of Ashura in January 2008 for planning to target a mourning procession.

The police also alleged that a big quantity of explosive material and a number of illicit weapons were found in their possession. However, four of them were exonerated on Nov 23, 2011, while their accomplice Aziz Ahmed reportedly went missing following his release from prison on bail.

Initially, the court had granted bail to all the accused in 2008 due to lack of interest and persistent absence of investigation officer and witnesses.

Inspectors Nasir Khan, Mohammad Iqbal (an expert of the bomb disposal squad) and Mohammad Younus, ASI Arif Hussain and Sub-Inspector Riaz Ahmed Gujjar were the prosecution witnesses. But they remained absent from court for a long period despite many notices and warrants issued by the court.

IO Mohammad Younus and ASI Arif Hussain finally turned up on Nov 17, 2011 and recorded their statements while the prosecution left the remaining witnesses unheard.

It is worth noting here that the CID had also claimed to have arrested 10 suspects on the eve of general elections in February 2008 with a huge cache of explosive material. It was alleged that the suspects were associated with banned militant groups and were planning to carry out massive attacks on political and religious leaders in the city during the Feb 18 election to sabotage it. However, a court acquitted all of them because the recovered stuff was not proved as explosive substance.

In yet another such case, a court had not only acquitted a man arrested by the CID police for allegedly planning to blow up the Empress Market in 2004 but also ordered a departmental action against the policemen concerned for falsely implicating him.

Legal experts are of the opinion that it has become a matter of routine that whenever some suspects are held, the special investigation wings of police lose no time in associating them with banned outfits and with cases of terrorism. But most suspects are set free on bail as they are booked in cases pertaining to carrying unlicensed weapons, encounter with police or in some minor offences, the lawyers say.

“Police and other law-enforcement agencies are responsible under the law not merely to arrest criminals but also to play their due role to bring the criminals to justice.”

Just by arresting the suspects and linking them with banned militants’ groups is not enough, the police must produce solid evidence before court to prove their guilt, they add.