IOs told to submit charge sheets against two ‘LeJ terrorists’

KARACHI: The administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts directed the investigation officers dealing with the murder cases against suspected Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists Asim alias Kapri and Ishaq alias Bobby on Saturday to submit charges sheets till December 20.

The two men, who face charges of killing famous qawwal Amjad Sabri and army soldiers, were produced before the court. The court was told that the process of preparing charge sheets was under way. The investigation officers prayed to the court to grant them some time to complete the interrogation and prepare the charge sheets.

The court granted time till December 20 and directed them to submit the charges sheets against the two men. The investigation officers told the court that they were gathering evidence against the two men who were involved in around 34 murders, many of them on sectarian basis.

Asim and Ishaq were identified by witnesses as the killers of four Rangers soldiers. The two accused while recording their confessional statements under Section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code had told the judicial magistrate (West) that they had killed four Rangers soldiers Ittehad Town. They also admitted they had gunned down two Military Police personnel near the Saddar Parking Plaza on July 19 this year.

Last month, the intelligence wing of the CTD, led by Transnational Terrorists Intelligence Group in-charge Raja Umer Khattab, had raided a hideout in Liaquatabad and facing resistance, arrested two men Asim and Ishaq.

A huge cache of weapons was seized while searching the hideout. The Sindh government had formed a joint interrogation team to interrogate the two Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists believed to be involved in the killing of qawwal Amjad Sabri, army, police and Rangers personnel and other major attacks.

The joint interrogation team was headed by SSP Intelligence CTD Omar Shahid Hamid. Its other members included SSP Special Branch Sindh Younus Chandio, a representative of Pakistan Rangers Sindh, a representative of the ISI, a representative of MI, and a representative of the IB Sindh (equal to a rank of an SP).

During preliminary interrogation, the two men admitted to their involvement in 20 target killings over the past year, including the murder of five people at a majlis in Nazimabad No. 4 on October 29.

They also confessed to lobbing a grenade on a majlis in FC Area on October 17, killing an 11-year-old boy injuring a dozen other people. The y further admitted that they had gunned down two Military Police personnel near the Saddar Parking Plaza on July 26, renowned qawwal Amjad Sabri on June 23, and two traffic police officers at Ayesha Manzil on May 21.

The LeJ terrorists are believed to be involved in the murder of seven policemen who were deployed to protect polio vaccinators in Orangi Town on April 20.