Uzair Baloch acquitted in double murder case for want of evidence

A sessions court on Tuesday acquitted outlawed Peoples Amn Committee chief Uzair Baloch in one more case pertaining to an encounter with police that had left two people, including a police officer, dead in 2009.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Abdul Hafeez Lashari, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, pronounced his order after recording evidence and final arguments from both defence and prosecution sides.

He observed that the prosecution failed to prove its case against the accused, exonerating him from all charges for lack of evidence. The court declared co-accused Jibrail a pro-claimed offender over his perpetual absence from the trial proceedings and put his case on the dormant file till his arrest.

According to the prosecution, Uzair was involved in a shootout with the police within the jurisdiction of the Chakiwara police station. A police official, Muhammad Asif, and private individual, Nisar Ahmed, were killed in the encounter while two others had sustained injuries, it said.

Three accused -- Hafeez Dada, Babar Punjabi and Zubair -- were arrested on the spot, the prosecution said. The three men, however, were acquitted by the court in 2012, while two more accused -- Basir and Zahoor -- were acquitted in 2017.

Defence counsel Hyder Farooq Jatoi contended that private witnesses did not identify his client as there were contradictions in their statements, due to which these cannot be relied upon for conviction. He said Baloch was implicated in the present case on the basis of statements of the co-accused who had already been acquitted by the court. Therefore, he pleaded with the court to acquit his client in the preset case.

An FIR was lodged at the Chakiwara police station under sections 302 (murder), 324 (attempted murder), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Uzair was booked in dozens of cases pertaining to murder, kidnapping, encounter with police during the 2012 operation in Lyari, grenade attacks on law enforcement personnel, and running an extortion racket. However, he has already been acquitted in many of them due to insufficient evidence or the benefit of doubt. In April 2020, Uzair was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a military court in an espionage case.