KARACHI: Police and other allied agencies have failed to bring to justice the mastermind and facilitators of the 2009 bomb blast in the main Ashura procession in the metropolis despite a passage of 14 years.

They have also failed to re-arrest three Jundullah militants who were allegedly involved in the attack, but had escaped from their custody at the City Courts 13 years ago in 2010.

The prosecution department had claimed that the three absconding accused were killed in an encounter with the law enforcement agencies. However, the trial still remains inconclusive.

More than 45 people were killed when a devastating bomb blast ripped through the main Ashura procession on M. A. Jinnah Road on December 28, 2009.

While prosecution claims three absconding Jundullah militants have been killed in encounter, trial in the 2009 terrorism case remains inconclusive

Four suspects — Murtaza alias Shakil, Mohammad Saqib Farooqui,Wazir Mohammad and Murad Shah — said to be associated with the banned militant outfit Jundullah, were arrested in January 2010 and booked in four cases pertaining to a series of attacks on Muharram processions in Karachi in 2009.

“The four cases pertaining to the targeted attacks on the mourning processions, including the one on the main Ashura procession, remain shelved in the court’s custody since October 2010 for want of suspects,” judicial staffers at the antiterrorism court, where the cases are pending trial, told Dawn.

Witnesses had reportedly identified four detained suspects during an identification parade held before a judicial magistrate at a pre-trial stage in the cases, prosecution officials said.

The Jundullah militants, who were arrested after a shoot-out at Hawkesbay in 2010 and had allegedly confessed to the attacks, had escaped from the City Court the same year.

All the suspects were reportedly freed from police custody by their accomplices after a gun attack on the premises of the crowded City Courts judicial complex on M. A. Jinnah Road, where the police had produced them in another case registered against them by the Anti-Car Lifting Cell on June 20, 2010.

Case remains dormant since 2010

“After the suspects managed to flee from their custody, the investigating officer informed the anti-terrorism court (ATC-III) about it,” a prosecution department official told Dawn, wishing not to be named.

“Subsequently, the court kept the cases on ‘dormant’ because the police and other law enforcement agencies have yet to show any progress regarding arrest of the suspects, who remain at large after a decade,” added the officials, requesting anonymity.

One of the four suspects, Murad Shah, was killed while fleeing, but his accomplices were never caught again.

“There is no progress in the cases till the day and the (cases) files remain shelved gathering dust,” the official added.

Abating the legal proceedings in all the cases, the trial court had issued life warrants for the arrest of three the suspects on Oct 7, 2010, directing the police to produce them in court “as soon as possible”.

The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of police had at the time of their arrest claimed that the suspects were ‘high-profile’ criminals associated with the proscribed outfit. However, they were not tried in a court inside the central prison and jail authorities had sent them to the city courts without making proper security arrangements.

It was the responsibility of the IOs to ask or recommend to the home department through a letter to notify the jail trial of hardened criminals in high-profile cases or if the jail authorities had insufficient security arrangements to take them to courts.

Delay favours accused

Legal experts believed that the prolonged suspension of the proceedings in such high-profile cases always benefited the accused party as prosecution witnesses might change their residences or go underground.

Also, it is hard for a witness to remember the exact evidence for years while it is also a difficult task for the IOs to maintain the case property, police files and stay in touch with their witnesses, they added.

The SIU had arrested the suspected militants following a shoot-out on Hawkesbay Road on Jan 23, 2010 and claimed that they had allegedly confessed to having carried out the attacks on the Muharram processions.

Subsequently, they were charge-sheeted under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and their cases were sent to the ATC-III for trial. However, they escaped before their indictment.

Murtaza and Saqib were booked for killing over 45 people and wounding about 100 others in the bomb attack on the main Ashura procession on Dec 28, 2009.

Police filed a charge sheet against the duo in the Paposh Nagar blast that took place on Dec 26, 2009 when an 8th Muharram procession was passing by and it left 13 people wounded.

They also filed a charge sheet against deceased Murad Shah in a case pertaining to a low-intensity blast that targeted a 9th Muharram procession in Qasba Colony on Dec 27, 2009.

Besides, the four suspects were also booked in a case registered under Sections 4/5 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the ATA at the Sir Syed police station, as the police claimed to have recovered explosive material on a lead provided by them.

‘All suspects killed in shoot-out’, chief prosecutor claims

In 2018, the Sindh Prosecutor General Dr Faiz Shah had made a disclosure about the three fleeing suspects by saying that “they were also killed in a shootout with law-enforcers”.

Without elaborating further, he had said that according to the IO of the case, the absconding suspects had been killed in an encounter.

After the lapse of 14 years, Mr Shah’s claim had given the case yet another interesting twist as to whether the law-enforcers had failed to re-arrest the fleeing suspects or they have been killed in an encounter.

In both conditions, the relatives of the victims, as well as the survivors of the attack still await justice.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2023