IO gets one more day to file charge sheet in Intezar murder case

A court hearing the murder case of teenager Intezar Ahmed gave the investigation officer (IO) one more day to file the charge sheet against eight Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) police officials.

Ahmed, 19, was killed after ACLC personnel opened fire at his car in a fake encounter on Khayaban-e-Ittehad in Defence Housing Authority on January 14.

During Wednesday’s hearing, the IO told the court of the judicial magistrate (South) that a new joint investigation team had been set up and it would be fair to prepare a charge sheet in light of the findings of that team.

The court granted one-day time to the investigation officer and directed him to submit the charge sheet against eight ACLC cops standing trial for Ahmed’s murder. The detained accused, however, would appear before the court on February 27.

One of the ACLC officers, Tariq Raheem, is on interim bail. He was granted bail by the additional district and sessions judge (South) for a sum of Rs500,000. ACLC SHO Tariq Mehmood and the seven other ACLC cops – Ghulam Abbas, Azhar Ahsan, Fawad Khan, Danial, Bilal, Shahid and Tariq Rahim—are standing trial over murder charges.

Ishtiaq Ahmed, father of slain Ahmed, alleged that the police were adopting delaying tactics in order to save the skin of their accused colleagues. A new JIT was set up he had expressed his doubts about the investigators.

Meanwhile, a judge of an anti-terrorism court (ATC) housed at the central prison fixed March 18 to hear the statements of the prosecution witnesses in the murder case of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Zahra Shahid.

The court recorded the statement of a policeman, Malik Fareed, who acted as a prosecution witness against suspected killers, Rashid alias Master, Zahid Abbas Zaidi, Irfran alias Lamba and Kaleem.

Zahra Shahid, who was the vice president of the PTI’s Sindh chapter, was shot dead in May 2013 by gunmen outside her residence in DHA Phase-IV.