Father of key accused among two suspects acquitted by ATC

Karachi
Naveed Ahmed, father of main accused Shoaib Naveed, along with another co-accused, Abid Hussain, alleged to have killed Hamza Ahmed were acquitted by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday. However, non-bailable arrest warrants were issued for another absconding key accused Ammal Rehman.
The father along with a security supervisor, Abid Hussain, was arrested on suspicion after they refused to give up Rehman’s whereabouts - Shoaib’s bodyguard – who had fled after the murder.
Both the suspects along with Shoaib were later granted bail by a sessions court.
The ATC (III), headed by Saleem Raza Baloch, upheld the rulings of the trial court. Considering the arguments of the accused the court struck off the murder charges under Section 497 of the CrPC.
The court was assured that none of them would be allowed to leave the country.
However, non-bailable arrest warrants were issued for Rehman.
Ahmed, a student of O-levels was allegedly killed by Rehman after he had an altercation with Shoaib outside a restaurant in DHA on April 27, 2013.
According to the prosecution, the two boys met outside a restaurant to settle a dispute but their discussion turned tense as Hamza allegedly slapped Shoaib following which Rehman shot Hamza to death.
After hearing arguments of the attorneys and the special public prosecutor the concerned court had earlier granted bail to co-accused Muhammad Idrees and Mushtaq Ahmed for a sum of Rs200,000 (each); both were employees of Shoaib.
April 6 was fixed as the next date for the hearing of the case.
The victim’s father Talib Sohail who got the case transferred to the ATC feared the influential accused were trying to confuse the court over the incident.
He said the murder fell under the purview of terrorism and also contested that the matters be taken up on behalf of the accused in the SHC.
The accused had pleaded before an ATC trial court to transfer the case to a sub-ordinate court maintaining that it could not be heard under the provisions of murder and also read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
The trial court, however, rejected their stance and approached the appellate court of the SHC which ordered a fresh inquiry in to the case and ordered to conclude the trial within a month.
DIG Training AD Khawaja was assigned to reinvestigate the murder, a fresh charge sheet was also filed.
A division bench, headed by Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai had issued orders for the probe on November 6 last year after hearing the father of the victim.
According to Sohail, Naveed and his security guard had come to the restaurant with the intention to kill his son.
The murder was the second incident of shooting in DHA to have sparked a public outcry demanding harsh punishments for the culprits, following the murder of Shahzeb Khan in December, 2012 who was shot dead by a son of an influential landlord along with his friends and guard.
The third included the murder of Suleman Lashari who was gunned down inside his house by a son of a serving police officer.