Uzair Baloch acquitted in another case

An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday acquitted alleged Lyari gangster Uzair Baloch in another case pertaining to a grenade attack that left three people injured in 2012.

Baloch. along with Taj Muhammad alias Taju, Noor Muhammad alias Baba Ladla and Zafar Baloch alias Langra, was charged with wounding three fruit sellers – Imran Khan, Muhammad Afzal and Ghairat Khan in the grenade attack in the Lea Market.

The ATC-VII judge announced the verdict after recording evidence and final arguments on January 23. The trial was held in the judicial complex inside the central jail. The judge ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the case against Baloch, who was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The case against absconding accused Taj Muhammad was kept on the dormant file till his arrest or surrender, while two suspects, Baba Ladla and Zafar Baloch, are said to have been killed in an encounter.

The jail authorities were told to release Uzair Baloch if he was not required in any other case. According to the prosecution, the venders who would sell fruits in the Lea Market used to sleep at their roadside stalls at night. On the night of May 2, 2012, some unidentified accused lobbed a hand grenade at them while they were sleeping, leaving them injured.

Defence lawyer Abid Zaman stated that there was no witness to identify the suspect who threw the hand grenade at the complainant and others. The case was lodged against unknown men but the prosecution framed his client in it, he added.

An FIR was lodged under sections 324 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with sections 3 and 4 of the Explosives Act, 1908 and Section 7 (punishment for terrorism acts) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 at the Kharadar police station.

The alleged Lyari warlord had been named in dozens of cases pertaining to murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, extortion, encounters with law enforcers. He has thus far been acquitted in around 25 cases either due to a lack of evidence or the benefit of the doubt. In April 2020, a military court had sentenced Baloch to 12 years in jail for working for an international spy agency.