The administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts on Saturday tasked a trial court to dispose of the 2019 Defence Housing Authority (DHA) kidnappings cases after the police completed their investigation, apprehending most of the gang responsible.
Police have charge-sheeted six suspects — five arrested and one absconding — for last year’s ransom kidnappings of Bisma Memon and Dua Mangi from the upmarket DHA neighbourhood in May and November respectively.
Muzaffar, Zohaib Qureshi, Waseem Raja, Fayyaz Solangi and Tariq are in jail custody while their alleged ringleader Agha Mansoor Hussain, a former policeman who was dismissed from service for being involved in criminal activities, is on the run.
According to the investigators, the suspects not only carried out both the kidnappings after recce but also made shrewd moves to escape the clutches of the law.
Police said the suspects also seriously wounded Haris Soomro, a friend of Dua’s, when he put up a fight to prevent the kidnapping. Both women were released after their families paid hefty ransoms, they added.
The investigators found that both captives were kept in a flat in Clifton, and the suspects used fake registration number plates on their vehicles to dodge the police.
They said the forensic report matched the weapons found on Muzaffar and Qureshi with the bullet casings found at the scene where Dua was kidnapped from and Soomro was shot. The administrative judge transferred the case to the anti-terrorism court-II for conducting the trial.