Uzair Baloch acquitted in two more cases

KARACHI: A sessions court on Friday acquitted the chief of the defunct Peoples Amn Committee, Uzair Jan Baloch, for lack of evidence in two murder trials. Baloch, who was allegedly one of the most powerful kingpins of violence in Karachi, was charged with the murders of two people belonging to his rival gang of Arshad Pappu in Lyari in 2004.

However, during the trials, the prosecution could not produce sufficient evidence against him, due to which the additional district and sessions judge South at the Central Jail acquitted him, extending the benefit of the doubt to him.

The FIRs were registered against him under sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Kalakot and the Baghdadi police stations.

Baloch was produced before the court from the prison amid tight security. This is his sixth acquittal in the past one month. He still faces around five dozen cases pertaining to felonies like murder, terrorism, kidnapping and extortion.

According to reports, he was arrested through Interpol from Dubai, but the Rangers showed his arrest outside Karachi in January 2016.

The army had taken his custody in April 2017 on the charges of espionage and leak of sensitive security information to foreign intelligence agencies. He was later sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court reserved verdict in three cases pertaining to rioting and attacking police after concluding arguments from both the sides. The judgement will be announced on February 16.