ATC to record statements of prosecution witnesses from April 11

Karachi
The anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday while dismissing the pleas of key-accused Salman Abro for hearing arguments issued orders for recording the statements of prosecution witnesses from April 11.
Salman Abro has been accused of killing 18-year-old Suleman Lashari in cold blood at his house in DHA with the assistance of five armed guards.
The charge sheet for the murder against five detained accused was already submitted and accepted by ATC-III headed by Saleem Raza Baloch.
However, the counsel for the accused had moved two applications challenging the status of framing charges and perfect examination of scene of crime where Lashari and one of Abro’s guards had been killed.
The attorneys of the key accused had claimed that the framing of charges was against some provisions of the law and also that the crime scene hadn’t been properly examined by the investigators.
However, the court, after hearing their exhaustive arguments rejected their pertaining to the framing of charges. It also found no legal grounds to have the crime scene re-examined and rejected the second application as well.
It ordered to produce prosecution witnesses at the next hearing scheduled for April 11.
A number of similar applications have been moved by the defence counsel and almost all of them have been quashed by the court after hearing arguments.
Counsel for the accused, Advocate Abdur Razzaq, had challenged the nature of the trial in the Sindh high Court arguing that it was not a case of terrorism but that of simple murder and therefore, should be shifted to regular court.
However, the Sindh High Court rejected the plea and declared that the case will proceed in the assigned anti-terrorism court.
The deceased was shot dead around 2am in his house while studying on the balcony allegedly by Abro and his five armed guards after a petty argument between the two.
A case had been registered at the Darakhshan police station against Abro and four police constables – Muhammad Rasheed, Yasin, Maqbool and Imran – who had accompanied him. One of the police guards, Zaheer, had been killed when Lashari’s private security guards had returned fire.
The police had also seized the vehicle and the weapons used in the crime. On court orders Abro was shifted to juvenile jail after a medical board set up on court orders had declared him to be below 18 years of age. The accused is the son of a senior police officer SSP Ghulam Sarwar Abro.