Two men acquitted in jail official’s murder case

Two men facing charges of the murder of deputy superintendent of jail Amanullah Khan Niazi and others were acquitted by an anti-terrorism court on Monday.

The ATC noted that Abu Irfan and Faisal Khawaja were innocent as no evidence had been presented against them.

Deputy superintendent Niazi, his driver Akhter Hassan, and other policemen, Shafiullah, Muhammad Azeem, and Sabir Sultan were murdered within the jurisdiction of the Garden police station on June 15, 2006.

The men arrested for their murder included Ubaid-ur-Rehman alias K2, Tanveer Chand, Sajjad and Saeed alias Saeed Bharam are activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

Ten others who are absconding have been declared proclaimed offenders by the court.

The anti-terrorism court  has already indicted Ubaid, Tanveer Chand and Sajjad in October 2015.

When the charges were read out to the three accused, they pleaded not guilty. The court is now recording the evidence against the accused involved in the case of murder of Amanullah Khan Niazi and others.

PSP activists

The administrative judge of the ATCs accepted a two-day remand of Pak Sarzameen Party activists, Wajid and Adnan alias Burger, who face charges of killing a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insraf leader, Rafiq Hoti in 2014 over political differences.

One of the accused, Faisal alias Mama, is already under detention. Wajid and Adnan were produced before the ATC, which granted their two-day remand in police custody.

A supplementary charge sheet was submitted to the administrative judge that read that MQM founder Altaf Hussain had delivered a speech wherein he had used words that were tantamount to harassing the women listening to it.

Over 100 party leaders and activist including Hussain, Dr Farooq Sattar, Haider Abbas Rizi, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Arif Advocate, Salman Maujahid and Zahida Begum have been declared in the charge sheet as absconders.

However MQM-Pakistan leaders Waseem Akhtar, Rauf Sidduqi and Khawja Izhar-ul-Hasan have obtained bail in the case.

The administrative judge also remanded an activist of a banned outfit, Farrukh Jamal, in the custody of the counter-terrorism department for interrogation.

Jamal was recently arrested in SITE and is allegedly involved in terrorist activities and other heinous crimes.  

‘Extortionist’

A police report against an alleged extortionist, Ateeq-ur-Rehman, was submitted to an ATC. He has been accused of extorting traders and shopkeepers in Baldia Town.

The police submitted in the report that during interrogation, the accused had confessed to threatening shopkeepers and attack them with explosive material.

The traders had lodged a complaint against Ateeq, who was arrested by the police in the Pir Bab Ground area.