Three ‘SRA men’ indicted for facilitating Kharadar bomb blast

An anti-terrorism court has indicted three alleged facilitators of an IED blast that had killed a woman and injured 11 others, including policemen, in Karachi’s Kharadar area in May last year.

The ATC-XVI judge read out charges against three suspects -- Dilbar Ali, Abdul Qayyum and Abdul Sattar -- said to be associated with the outlawed Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army (SRA).

They pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case. The judge summoned prosecution witnesses to record their testimonies against them. Ali and Sattar were produced from jail while Qayyum turned up in the court on bail.

The judge noted that more than eight months had passed, but the investigation officer had not submitted the final charge-sheet as yet. He said the IO was at liberty to submit the final charge sheet later on after receiving relevant reports.

According to the prosecution, the three suspects, who are policemen, conducted reconnaissance of the area before the blast. They remained in contact with each other and would also meet at restaurants as per evidence collected, it said.

On May 12, an improvised explosive device (IED) blast planted on a motorbike went off near the Boulton Market in Kharadar, killing a woman and injuring eleven others.

An FIR was lodged by the Counter-Terrorism Department under sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempt to murder), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), and 34 (common intention), of the Pakistan Penal Code read with the sections 3 and 4 of Explosive Substance Act, 1908, and Section 7 (punishment for terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. A separate case was lodged against Dilbar Ali over alleged recovery of explosive material from his possession.