Prosecutor granted time to reply to Uzair Baloch’s plea for transfer to central jail

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday granted more time to the state prosecutor to file his comments on the plea moved by alleged Lyari gang war kingpin Uzair Baloch seeking his return to the central jail.

Baloch had moved an application through his counsel requesting the court’s direction for his transfer from the Mitharam Hostel to the Central Jail Karachi. He was sent to the hostel, which is being used as a base by the Rangers, in June in view of security concerns.

The home department on June 9 had issued a notification stating that in consideration of reports of security concerns, the government had notified the facility at the Mitharam Hostel as a sub-jail to keep Baloch in safe custody.

The ATC-XVI judge issued a notice to the prosecutor, who remained absent, to ensure his presence on the next hearing with his reply to the application by the accused.

Baloch was presented in the court amid strict security for hearing in a kidnapping-cum-murder case of two Rangers intelligence personnel who were killed in 2013 allegedly on the orders of the gangster.

Muneer Ahmed Bhutto and Aijaz Ahmed Baloch, both belonging to the intelligence wing of the Pakistan Rangers Sindh, were kidnapped in Lyari and later their tortured bodies were found in the Mewa Shah graveyard in March, 2013.

According to a joint investigation team’s report, the intelligence personnel were killed by another gangster Sher Muhammad Sheikh, alias Sheru, on the directions of Baloch because they had been spying on him.

Baloch faces over 50 cases pertaining to murders, kidnappings, extortion and terrorism. After his arrest had been declared by the Rangers in January, 2016, the army took him into custody in April, 2017, on the charges of espionage and leak of sensitive security information to foreign intelligence agencies. He was convicted on the charge in April this year and sentenced to 12 years in prison.