KARACHI: An antiterrorism court has awarded a collective 37-year imprisonment to a mugger for killing a boy and wounding policemen during an encounter in 2019.

Sher Zaman was found guilty of killing 10-year-old passerby Sajjad Ali and wounding police constables Attaullah and Mohammad Tahir Khan with an unlicensed pistol during an exchange of fire in Bilal Colony on April 5, 2019.

The ATC-XX judge, who conducted the trial, recently pronounced his verdict.

The judge awarded life imprisonment to the convict and ordered him to pay a Rs50,000 fine or undergo a six-month additional imprisonment on default.

The judge also handed down a collective imprisonment of 12 years to the convict on the counts of encounter with the police, attempt to murder and possessing an illicit weapon.

CTD told to probe intelligence reports before registering FIR

The court imposed a collective fine of Rs60,000 on the convict or a collective imprisonment of one year on default.

State prosecutor Iqbal Meo Rajput contended that a police party on receiving information about the presence of two gunmen near Wakeel Hotel reached the spot on April 5, 2019.

He further contended that on seeing the police the suspects opened fire in which constables Attaullah and M. Tahir Khan and a 10-year-old passerby boy, Sajjad Ali, received bullet wounds. The child later succumbed to his wounds during treatment in a hospital, while the policemen survived, he added.

The prosecutor stated that accused Sher Zaman was arrested in an injured condition while his alleged accomplice Murad, alias Taachi, escaped. Mr Rajput argued that the evidence, including medical and forensic analyses and testimonies of the prosecution’s witnesses, fully corroborated the allegations against the accused. Therefore, he asked the court to punish them in accordance with the law.

On the other hand, defence counsel Shabana Chouhan denied the allegations and claimed innocence on behalf of her client. She asked the court to acquit him of the allegations.

In his statement, recorded under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the accused also denied the allegations.

Two separate cases were registered under relevant sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and the Sindh Arms Act, 2013 at the Quaidabad police station.

Inquiry for FIR

An antiterrorism court on Monday directed the Counter-Terrorism Depar­tment to hold an inquiry into an intelligence report before registering an FIR.

While disposing of a case in C-class (cancellation) registered on the basis of an intelligence report, the ATC-XII judge said that this exercise would lessen the burden on courts as well as the investigating agencies.

An investigating officer of the CTD submitted a C-class report asking the court to cancel the case since no evidence was found against the suspect during the investigation.

The report said that in March last year the CTD lodged a case against Asif Zaheer on the basis of a report of intelligence agencies for allegedly collecting funds for the proscribed militant outfit Al-Qaeda.

The ATC said a perusal of the record revealed that the suspect in question had been behind bars in some other cases since January 2020 and at the time of lodging this case he was in prison and, therefore, he was found innocent in the present case due to his captivity.

The trial court further observed that the Sindh High Court while granting bail in many cases held that as per law when there was no date and time of offence then how an FIR could be registered.

While referring to a meeting of the National Judicial Policymaking Committee held in 2019, the ATC judge said that the committee had introduced a mechanism to resolve the issue about non-registration of an FIR by the police and to entertain applications under Section 22-A of the CrPC after the aggrieved persons exhausted the remedy before the complaint redressal centre of the police.

The ATC said that such a mechanism be adopted by the police in the cases of intelligence reports and before the registration of an FIR, intelligence reports be sent to the superintendent of the CTD police to initiate an inquiry into such reports and the FIR be lodged after the SP found it necessary and the inquiry report be made part of the FIR so that in future no C-class report was filed in courts.

This exercise would also lessen the burden on courts and investigation section of police, it added and directed the additional IGs of Karachi and CTD for compliance with its order.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2021