RAWALPINDI, June 2: An anti-terrorism court here on Saturday acquitted four suspected abettors of the Time Square botched bombing due to lack of evidence.

ATC judge Shahid Rafique observed that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges of abatement and money laundering against Mohammad Shahid, Hunbal Akhtar, Faisal Shabbir and Mohammad Shoaib. The four arrested persons were accused of providing financial support to Pakistani-American national Faisal Shahzad, the main suspect in the incident.

Defence counsel Chaudhry Zahoor Hussain pleaded that the suspects had no connection either with the Times Square incident or the main accused.

Special public prosecutor Syed Tayyab, however, maintained that according to record Shahid, Akhtar, Shoaib and Shabbir had close contact with Shahzad.

Prosecutor Tayyub told Dawn that the state would file an appeal against the decision of the ATC judge with Islamabad High Court. Meanwhile, the same court also acquitted Bakht Amin, who was arrested in Bhara Kahu last year under the explosive substance act, due to lack of evidence.

In yet another case, ATC Judge Masood Akhtar ordered the release of Mokammal Khan and two others arrested for their alleged involvement in a kidnapping for ransom case after the complainant and the accused reached an out-of-court compromise.