Hearing of Saeed Bharam’s case deferred for a day

Karachi

Unable to be produced in court on Monday owing to a lack of staff on Yaum-e-Ali, suspected target killer of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Saeed alias Bharam would be produced before the judicial magistrate (South) today.

He was remanded for an additional five days on June 22.

Claimed to be an accomplice of hanged MQM activist Saulat Mirza in the murder of then Karachi Electric Supply Corporation’s (KESC) managing director Shahid Hamid, Saeed was facing over 50 cases not only pertaining to targeted killings but also illegal occupation of land. 

Saeed had also been accused of killing a worker of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement- Haqeeqi (MQM-H) in Lines Area.

He was tried and convicted for the murders of four US workers of Union Texas and their driver in November 1997, the sentence was later set aside by the Sindh High Court (SHC) in February 2003.

The IO had on the previous hearing requested the court to grant a week-long physical remand of the accused, however, the magistrate allowed a five-day remand.

According to a JIT report presented in court on the previous hearing, the accused had revealed that around 13 ‘hitmen’ had fled Karachi after the operation began and that he knew of over 34 MQM workers who had received training from Indian intelligence agency RAW- Research and Analysis Wing.

Believed to have fled to Dubai at the onset of the Karachi operation in 2013, the accused was arrested with the help of Interpol Dubai and brought to Karachi on March 22, where his 90-day preventive detention was endorsed.

Responding to anti-terrorism court’s administrative judge Justice Farooq Shah’s query with respect to his political affiliation, Saeed had claimed that he was a part of the MQM years ago but had no connection with the party anymore.

His brother, Arfeen, was also reported to have been arrested; their mother had alleged that both her sons were innocent and were arrested without any legal justifications.

He was alleged to have been running a network of criminals from South Africa and Dubai.

The accused was also nominated in the murder of deputy superintendent central prison Amanullah Khan Niazi, his driver Akhtar Hasan and other policemen, in 2006, along with other under detention accused Ubaidur Rehman alias Ubaid K2, Irfan alias Urfi, Faisal and Nadir Shah - arrested during a raid at MQM headquarters in March 2015.