Uzair Baloch acquitted in three more cases

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday acquitted Lyari’s alleged gangster Uzair Baloch in three more violence-related cases after the prosecution failed to prove the charges against him.

According to the prosecution, Baloch and his accomplices had rioted and attacked officials of the law enforcement agencies that were conducting a crackdown on criminal gangs in Lyari. The ATC-VIII judge, who conducted the trial inside the Central Jail Karachi, observed that the prosecution could not prove the charges against the accused, so the court had to extend the benefit of the doubt to him. Baloch, who was the chief of the now-defunct Peoples Aman Committee, is facing over five dozen cases in different courts, and has so far been acquitted in at least eight of the cases for lack of evidence.

Most of the cases against him were registered between 2004 and 2013, and involve felonies like murder, attempted murder, extortion, kidnapping and rioting. He allegedly escaped Pakistan after the authorities launched an operation against him. The Rangers had announced his arrest in a raid on the outskirts of Karachi in January 2016. Some unverified reports said that he was arrested earlier from Dubai with the help of the Interpol. Later, a joint investigation team formed to interrogate him declared him blacklisted.

Baloch, however, denies all the charges against him. Previously, he had told an ATC judge that he was being politically victimised over his affiliation with the Pakistan Peoples Party and being pressurised into joining the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.