KARACHI: An antiterrorism court has expressed its displeasure over failure of prosecution in producing witnesses in the eight-year-old case pertaining to the murder of alleged Lyari gangster Arshad alias Pappu and two others.

Uzair Baloch, the alleged Lyari kingpin, along with others has been charged with murdering his rival Arshad Pappu, his brother Arafat and an aide Jumma Shera in 2013.

When the matter recently came up before the ATC-X judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, the investigating officer was set to produce witnesses of the prosecution to record their testimonies against the accused persons.

However, IO Inspector Yameen Gujjar was found absent.

The judge noted that no prosecution witness was in attendance. “There are 29 (number of) witnesses in this case out of which 10 have been examined,” he noted with concern.

Later, IO Gujjar appeared and filed a report, stating that some witnesses — including Arshad Pappu’s widow Asma and his son, Owais, who was an eyewitness of the triple murder — were “untraceable”.

Therefore, they could not be produced for recording their statements, the IO said, adding that efforts were under way to trace their whereabouts.

He further informed that the first IO of the case Abid Ansari, who was also among the witnesses, was also out of the city, so he could not appear before the court to record his statement.

He requested for time to ensure production of the witnesses before the court to record their testimonies.

The judge directed the IO to produce the remaining witnesses along with case properties for recording their statements on the next date “without fail”.

The case was adjourned till June 9.

Earlier, chief of the defunct Peoples Amn Committee Uzair Baloch, Zakir Baloch and Zubair Baloch were produced from prison.

Six other accused Shah Jahan Baloch, M. Yousuf, Javeed Baloch, Abdul Rehman, Akram Baloch and Chaand Khan appeared on bail.

Around eight nominated co-accused, including Sheraz Comrade, Zaheer, Raj Mohammad, Zahid Ladla, Asif, Yasir Pathan, Faisal Pathan and Habib Jan are still absconding in the present case.

According to the prosecution, Arshad Pappu with his brother, a confidant and 10-year-old son had gone to attend a party of a friend in Defence Housing Authority on the night of March 16, 2013.

The boy came home around midnight and informed his mother that around 20 men in two vehicles came to the flat in DHA and took away his father and the two others, it added.

A case was registered under relevant sections of the law at the Kalakot police station on the directive of the Supreme Court.

Arshad Pappu was booked in around 60 cases, but he was never convicted in any case since most of the key witnesses either did not turn up to testify against him or turned hostile before the courts.

He was released in the middle of February 2012 from a prison in Balochistan following his acquittal in what appeared to be the last case against him pertaining to the murder of Faiz Mohammad, aka Mama Faizu, a transporter and the father of Uzair Baloch.

Mother remanded in child murder case

A local court on Tuesday remanded a woman in judicial custody detained for allegedly murdering her minor daughter in Saeedabad.

Police arrested and booked Saba for allegedly suffocating her eight-year-old daughter Maryam to death over a domestic dispute.

On Tuesday, the IO produced the suspect, along with her two minor children, to seek her physical remand in police custody for interrogation and investigation.

He said the suspect allegedly murdered her eldest daughter by suffocating her and requested for her 14-day remand.

However, the judge remanded her in judicial custody with the direction to the IO to produce her on the next date along with an investigation report.

The police said the suspect’s husband had contracted a second marriage and had not visited the suspect and her children for the last six months.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2021