Five MQM men walk free in cop killings case due to unproven culpability

Five Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) men accused of murdering a police officer and his guard were acquitted by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday after the prosecution failed to prove their involvement in the case.

Ubaid Khursheed (alias K2), Ishtiaq (alias Policewala), Syed Shakir Hussain, Syed Zakir Hussain and Khawaja Faisal had been charged with murdering Inspector Nasirul Hasan and his guard Head Constable Khurram Butt.

Inspector Hasan, then SHO of the Brigade police station, and Head Constable Butt had been martyred in a shooting by motorcyclists in Lines Area on July 1, 2010. Hasan had been an active member of the police team that was part of Operation Clean-up, also known as Operation Blue Fox, in Karachi in the early 1990s. Most of the policemen who had been on that team were martyred in a similar fashion.

According to the prosecution, the accused men — all of them belonging to the MQM — had committed the murders on the instructions of their party’s senior leaders in a vengeful campaign against the policemen involved in the operation.

The defence, however, claimed that all of the accused were innocent and had been falsely implicated in the case. It said that they were being persecuted for their affiliation with the MQM.

The ATC judge observed in his verdict that the prosecution had failed to bring unshakeable testimonies and evidences against the accused, so they were given the benefit of the doubt and discharged from the case.

The FIR of the incident had been registered at the Brigade police station under sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 353 (criminal force to deter public servant from discharging duty) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The case against two more suspects, who were declared absconders — namely Nadeem Shabbir (alias Dhobi) and Asif (alias Chitta) — has been kept on dormant until they are arrested.