KARACHI, Sept 19: Two key prosecution witnesses turned hostile on Wednesday before an anti-terrorism court in an arson attack case.

Abdul Sattar along with his absconding accomplices has been charged with setting a bus on fire in March 2012 in North Nazimabad.

The police had claimed to have arrested the accused from the scene of crime with the help of the bus driver and cleaner who had also identified him as one of the arsonists.

Driver Fida Hussain and cleaner Mohammad Akram appeared on Wednesday before Judge Khalida Yasin of the ATC-II and recorded their testimonies.

Both eyewitnesses failed to pick out the accused present in court and while pointing towards him they deposed that he was not among those who had set the vehicle ablaze.

The public prosecutor requested the court to declare the witnesses hostile since they deviated from their earlier statements.

The court declared the eyewitnesses hostile and adjourned the hearing till Oct 9 for evidence of other prosecution witnesses.

According to the prosecution, during the violent incidents that erupted on March 27 after the killing of a senior activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and his brother in their house in PIB Colony, the accused along with his three to four absconding accomplices intercepted a bus of route 2-D in North Nazimabad’s Block M, offloaded the passengers and set the vehicle on fire.

A case (FIR 144/2012) was registered under Sections 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage etc) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on a complaint of the bus driver at the Taimuria police station.