Benazir’s murder case: Provincial review board adjourns detention matter

LAHORE: A provincial review board comprising three judges of the LHC on Friday adjourned a matter regarding further detention of five persons acquitted by an anti-terrorism court in former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s murder case.

The police produced the detainees before the review board and sought extension in the detention period. However, the board headed by Justice Abdul Sami Khan deferred the matter until February 19 due to unavailability of Advocate General Punjab Shakilur Rehman Khan. The Punjab government had detained them soon after their release by the Rawalpindi’s trial court in Benazir murder case. The acquitted persons Rafaqat Hussain, Sher Zaman, Hasnain Gul, Abdul Rasheed and Aitzaz Shah allegedly belonged to the TTP. The board had on November 28, 2017 extended their detention for 90 days. Besides acquitting these five men of the charges, the trial court had declared former president Pervez Musharraf an absconder in the case and awarded 17-year imprisonment each to two senior police officers -Saud Aziz and Khurram Shahzad - for showing negligence in security arrangements which led to assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007 outside the Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi. However, a bench of the LHC later suspended their sentence.