SHC sets aside convictions of two MQM activists in police officers’ killing case

The Sindh High Court on Monday set aside the convictions of two activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in a police officers’ killing case.

Ubaid alias K2 and Nadir Shah were sentenced to life imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi for murdering two assistance sub-inspectors, who had taken part in the Karachi operation in mid 1990s, in Soldier Bazaar area on March 25, 2000.

According to the prosecution, the appellants, along with absconding co-accused, fired on ASI Nisar Ahmed and ASI Mohammad Rehan when they were on their way to the office of DIG Crime Branch on MA Jinnah Road.

The appellants’ counsel submitted that the appellants were falsely implicated in the case due to political victimisation. They said there were material contradiction in the evidence and the evidence of eyewitness could not be relied upon after 15 years of the incident. They further submitted that no weapons used in the incident had been recovered and the prosecution had failed to prove its case against the appellants.

The special prosecutor of the Rangers and the additional prosecutor general supported the trial court’s judgment, submitting that eyewitness had rightly identified the appellants in the identification parade and his testimony could not be discarded. They said both the appellants had confessed to the murder of the police officers during interrogation after they had been arrested at the MQM headquarters Nine Zero in March 2015.

A division bench comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Irshad Ali Shah, after hearing the arguments of the counsel and perusal of the evidence of the case, observed that its appeared that the name of the eyewitness was not mentioned as eyewitness in the first police report and evidence of the witness could not be safely relied upon.

The court observed that no weapon was recovered from either of the appellants, and as such the forensic report was irrelevant and the prosecution must have proven the case against the appellants beyond any reasonable doubt. The court, while extending the benefit of the doubt to the appellants, set aside the trial court order and ordered releasing the appellants if not required in other cases.