ATC adjourns hearing till April 6 due to absence of prosecutors

Karachi
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday put off the hearing of the Karachi airport attack case yet again till April 6 due to the absence of the attorneys of the accused.
The ATC (I) headed by Bashir Ahmed Khoso was to record the evidence of the witnesses in the attack and present the under detention accused before the court.
As many as 15 people were killed when around 10 militants launched an attack at the city airport on June 8, 2014.
Eight absconding accused belonging to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah, spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, Malik Mumtaz Awan, Asim Shareef, Akhtar alias Plumber, Iqbal alias Thaikedar, Abdullah Baloch and Abdul Rasheed involved in the attack had been declared proclaimed offenders by the concerned court; non-bailable arrest warrants were also issued.
Three of the accused, Sarmad Siddiqui, Nadeem alias Burger and Asif Zaheer are currently under trial whereas one of the accused, Master Essa, was declared innocent by the police under Section 169 of CrPC.
The TTP claiming responsibility for the attack said it was carried out to avenge the killing of former chief Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike in, 2013.
However, accused Siddiqui claimed he was arrested on August 15, 2014 from his office at Sharea Faisal and was falsely implicated in the airport attack case.
According to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) he was arrested on October 28.
He had also written a letter to the President following which the DG Rangers, IG Sindh and other authorities were directed to investigate the matter.
The police had allegedly asked for Rs2.5 million from his family members to secure his release but he was instead implicated in the case, Siddiqui alleged.
He further claimed that Nasir Arooj, a police informer, was behind his arrest.
He had prayed to the President to hold the investigation under a military court.
Earlier, in a press conference outside the court, Siddiqui’s relatives claimed he was the president of a human rights organisation and they could not imagine him being behind such a crime.
The ATC directed the Investigation Officer (IO) Inspector Tariq Qayyum to initiate the proceedings against the absconders under Sections 87 and 88 and asked to display pictures of the absconders and confiscate their properties.
Qayyum informed the court that their pictures were made public and property seized; however, Essa was found innocent and was released by them under Section 169; he was also found innocent by a joint investigation team (JIT).
Extortion suspects acquitted, IO issued notice
An ATC on Monday acquitted two suspects and issued a show cause notice to Investigation Officer Raja Jahangir on failing to prove charges of extortion against them.
Accused of demanding extortion money from a factory manager, the court acquitted Muhammad Azhar and Farhand and observed that the officer Jahangir would have to respond to the notice for presenting a weak case against the suspects.
According to the prosecution, four accused had demanded Rs5,000 on December 9, 2013 from a manager of a factory, located in Shershah; case against the incident was registered in the CIA police station under the supervision of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU). Two were arrested, however, but two other accomplices had fled.