SHC dismisses appeals of convicts in Safari Park shootout case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed the appeals of four convicts against their sentences of life imprisonment in the case of the 2013 Safari Park shootout.

Allah Wadhayo, Imran, Ahmer and Ranjhan assailed the anti-terrorism court order that had sentenced each of them life in prison twice for martyring a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and an assistant sub-inspector (ASI), and wounding four others during a shootout in the Safari Park area.

According to the prosecution, police had raided the house of absconding accused Pariyal Shah in Hussain Hazara Goth near the Safari Park for his involvement in several criminal cases, but Shah’s accomplices opened fire on the officials, resulting in injuries to three policemen during an exchange of fire.

The prosecution said DSP Qasim Ghauri and other policemen tried to surround the accused, who fired at the officials, resulting in Ghauri and ASI Asif being martyred due to the firing of the accused. Police had arrested nine accused, including the appellants, with weapons, while three had been killed by police firing.

The appellants’ counsel said his clients were falsely implicated in the case at the behest of the Rangers, adding that none of the appellants had been given a specific role of firing at and causing the death of or injuries to any police official.

He said the memo of the arrest and recovery of weapons was doubtful because five other accused who had been arrested with the appellants had been let off during the initial investigation of the case.

He said that all the accused who had fired at the police had been killed in the shootout, and thus, none of the appellants had any responsibility in the murder of the police officials.

The additional prosecutor general supported the impugned judgment, and said that all the appellants had been arrested with weapons, and that the evidence was reliable to convict the appellants. After hearing the arguments of the counsel and the perusal of the evidence of the case, an SHC division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha said the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The court said that all the appellants had fired at the police party with the intention to kill them, along with the other accused, while no major contradiction in the evidence of the prosecution witnesses had been found.

The court said the prosecution had established its case in respect of all the aspects of the offences for which each of the appellants had been convicted in the impugned judgements, and dismissed their appeals.

Sentence commuted

The SHC also dismissed the appeals of convicts in a robbery and murder case, but commuted the death sentence of one convict to life imprisonment while upholding the death sentence of another.

Mujahid and Raheem had been sentenced to death, while another accused named Shaukat had been awarded life imprisonment for murdering a shopkeeper in the Lyari area on August 18, 2016. According to the prosecution, the appellants had killed Bakhti Rehman at an oil depot during a robbery.

The additional prosecutor general asked for the appeals to be dismissed because, he said, the appellants had been identified by eyewitnesses, and the weapons used in the crime had been recovered from the possession of the appellants.

The court said the prosecution witnesses had identified the accused with their specific role, and the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. The court dismissed the appeal of the convicts, but commuted the death sentence of Raheem to life imprisonment.