KARACHI, April 21: Six men arrested in the Intelligence Bureau personnel’s killing case were released on Monday when the investigation officer of the case told a civil and judicial magistrate, South, that he did not have enough evidence against the suspects to file a charge-sheet.

Umer Farooq, Tariq Mohammad, Mohammad Saeed, Mohammad Adnan, Razaullah and Mohammad Salman were arrested on April 7 for their alleged involvement in the killing of two officers of the IB in the Preedy police limits on March 27.

The investigation officer submitted a report under Section 497-2 of the CrPC in the court, stating that during the initial investigations he did not collect sufficient evidence against the suspects in order for him to submit a charge-sheet against them.

The suspects were also interrogated while they were in police remand. However, they did not confess to their involvement in the killing of the IB personnel, the report added.

According to the prosecution, sub-inspector Mohammed Ibrahim and ASI Fazlur Rahman of the IB were gunned down by unknown motorcyclists on March 27 near the Regal Chowk in Saddar. They were rushed to the Civil Hospital, where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival.

Earlier on April 8, the administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts in Karachi had remanded the suspects in police custody till April 21.

The police had registered a case (FIR 178//08) under Section 302/34 read with Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act at the Preedy police station.

Kidnap for ransom case

An anti-terrorism court on Monday recorded the statements of two prosecution witnesses in a case pertaining to the kidnapping and murder of an eight-year-old girl.

Judge Ghulam Ali Samtio of ATC-I, who is conducting the trial, adjourned the hearing till April 23, when the investigation officer will testify.

A medico-legal officer of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Dr Fareeda, who had conducted autopsy on Iqra, told the court that medical reports confirmed that the girl had been sexually abused before being killed and marks of violence were also found on her body.

ASI Munir Ahmed of the Mochko police station in his statement before the trial court said that while acting on information from the relevant police station he had found some parts of the victim girl’s body in the Mockho area and handed them over to the authorities concerned after completing legal formalities.

According to the prosecution, Tanveer Ahmed had kidnapped the eight-year-old girl, Iqra, on Feb 25, 2007 in the Pakistan Bazar police limits when she was playing in front of her home. The accused, brother-in-law of the girl’s father, took her to his home and demanded a ransom of Rs500,000 from the victim’s father, Saleem.

The accused later allegedly raped the girl. He then killed her and chopped her body into pieces. Police had traced the accused through the calls he had made on the complainant’s cellular phone and arrested him.

During the initial interrogation, the accused said he had buried different parts of the victim’s body in the Saddar and Mochko areas. The police had raided the locations and disinterred the parts.

Earlier, judicial magistrate Irshad Hussain Qureshi testified that police had produced the accused, Tanveer Ahmed, in his court and he recoded the accused’s confessional statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code after completing legal formalities.

A case (FIR 74/2007) was lodged on the complaint of the victim’s father in the Pakistan Bazaar police station under Sections 365-A, 302 and 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7(A), (E), (I) of the Anti-terrorism Act.

Dr Zakia murder case

The judicial magistrate, East, Pervez Qadir Memon, on Monday remanded in police custody three suspected killers of a retired professor of Karachi University.

The prosecution said that the body of 75-year-old professor Dr Zeba Zakia was found dumped in the bushes on Jan 29 in the Sachal police jurisdiction. The deceased was unmarried and lived alone in her Gulshan-i-Iqbal residence.

The police had booked the deceased’s driver, Saleem alias Shabbir, her housemaid, Khalda, and neighbour Munir Abbassi on charges of killing the retired professor.

Police had registered a case under Section 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Sachal police station.

Indian fishermen

The civil judge and judicial magistrate, West, Ghulam Yaseen Kolachi, on Monday remanded 18 Indian fishermen in jail custody till May 4.

According to the prosecution, the Maritime Security Agency had detained the Indian fishermen with their fishing boat on April 19 for fishing illegally inside the Exclusive Economic Zone of Pakistan.

A case was registered against the fishermen under Sections 3/4 and 3/9 of the Fisheries Act at the Docks police station.