KARACHI, July 31: A sessions court acquitted on Tuesday three paramilitary soldiers in a murder case after the legal heirs of the deceased forgave them.

Hawaldar Mohammad Khursheed and Constables Liaquat Ali and Faraz Khan of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) were charged with killing a senior student of a seminary and injuring five others within the remit of the Quaidabad police station on March 1 this year.

The three FC men were part of the force that had been posted at different police stations following last year’s bloodshed in the city.

On a previous hearing, both parties, through their counsel, said that they had reached an out-of-court settlement and filed a compromise application in the trial court under Section 345 of the criminal procedure code along with affidavits.

However, the court ordered the publication of the compromise in the newspapers and directed the counsel to produce the legal heirs of the deceased, injured and any other person affected due to the alleged offences.

Section 345 of the CrPC says that the offences punishable under sections of the Pakistan Penal Code specified in the table (which also included attempted murder and premeditated murder registered under Sections 324 & 302 respectively), with the permission of the court before which any prosecution for such offences are pending, be compounded by the victims and heirs of the deceased.

When the matter came up for hearing before Additional District and Sessions Judge (Malir) Iqbal Ahmed Khawaja on Tuesday, the defence counsel produced Shaukat, Zar Wali, Ali Zaman and Sher Jang, who sustained injuries in the incident, and the legal heirs of deceased Qari Abdul Rehman in court.

They informed the court that they had forgiven the accused and would have no objection if the court acquitted them.

Subsequently, the court acquitted all the accused.

According to the prosecution, some construction material fell on the clothes of the  FC man, Khursheed, when he was walking by an under-construction seminary building in Muslim Colony, which prompted him to initiate an altercation with students. Later, he went to the Quaidabad police station and brought along his two subordinates and opened fire on the students that left Maulvi Mohammad Rehman dead and five other students wounded. The FC personnel were taken into custody shortly after the incident.

A case (FIR 119/12) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint of Qari Fazal Karim, a relative of the deceased.

The court directed the jail authorities to release the FC men if not wanted in any other criminal case.