Gangster Mama’s bail pleas in cop murder, terrorism cases rejected

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday dismissed the bail applications of a gangster in four cases of murder and terrorism that had taken place during the April 2012 police operation against the banned Peoples Amn Committee in Lyari.

Abdul Ghaffar, alias Mama, had been arrested by the police for his alleged association with the committee’s head, namely Uzair Baloch, as well as involvement in four terrorism cases.

Mama is believed to have been involved in the murders of the then Civil Lines SHO Fawad Khan, nine other police officials and Lyari residents as well as the attacks on police mobiles with explosives and automatic weapons on April 28, 2012.

According to the prosecution, the applicant and other gangsters of the committee, including Uzair Baloch, Habib Baloch, Zafar Baloch and Baba Ladla, fired at the police during the operation, murdering Khan, other officials and locals as well as injuring several others.

Mushtaq Ahmed, the applicant’s counsel, claimed that his client was falsely implicated in the case, adding that he had been behind bars for the past eight years without any trial and on mere hearsay of some police informer.

The counsel said the police had failed to examine even a single witness in the case in the past eight years. He requested that the court grant his client bail in the terrorism cases. The additional prosecutor general, however, strongly opposed the bail applications. He said that after a shoot-out, the police had arrested Mama with weapons that were used in encounters between law enforcers and terrorists during the operation.

He also said that sufficient evidence was available against the applicant as well as the co-accused in the cases. He requested that the court dismiss the bail applications. After hearing the arguments of the counsel for the reasons to be recorded later on, the SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Abdul Maalik Gaddi dismissed the bail applications.

‘Missing’ persons

The SHC also issued notices to the federal and provincial law officers, the home department, the Sindh police chief and others on petitions against the alleged illegal detentions of citizens by law enforcement officials.

Fehmida, Shah Khalid and Syed Altaf said in their petitions that the police and other law enforcement officials took Ali Raza, Amir Mavia and Saddam Hussain from the Gulbahar, Civil Lines and PECHS areas during different raids, and their whereabouts were unknown.

They said the police and other law enforcement officials were neither producing them before any court of law nor providing any details of their cases to their family members. They requested that the alleged detainees be brought before the court. They also requested that the court direct the police and other respondents to provide the details of cases against them, if any.

The court issued notices to the federal and provincial law officers, the home department, the Sindh police chief and the relevant police stations, directing them to file their comments on the petitions.