ATC acquits six guards of Zulfiqar Mirza in SHC siege case

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) acquitted on Monday six security guards of former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza in seven cases lodged against them following a violent incident on the premises of the Sindh High Court (SHC).

The ATC-I judge exonerated the accused persons, identified as Riaz, Muhammad Ashiq, Abdul Raheem, Muhammad Haroon, Abdul Majeed, and Nabi Bux, from all the charges by giving them the benefit of the doubt.

In May 2015, masked commandos of the Sindh police’s Special Security Unit (SSU) had besieged the SHC and beat up Mirza’s security guards, as well as journalists who were covering the incident. The disgruntled PPP leader had reached the high court after he was not allowed to appear before an ATC for the extension of his bail.

Subsequently, the Preedy police booked the guards for allegedly trying to forcibly enter the SHC building with weapons and creating law and order situation. A case was lodged under the Section 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 353 (assault or act to deter a public servant from discharging his duty), 324 (attempt to murder), and 186 (obstructing public service) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with the Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act.

In addition to that case, separate FIRs were filed against each of them for possession of illicit arms under the Section 23(i)a of the Sindh Arms Act, 2013. The judge announced the verdict after hearing arguments of both the prosecution and defence sides and recording evidence. He said the prosecution had failed to prove its case against the accused beyond a reasonable shadow of doubt.

“It is well settled principle of law that for giving benefit of doubt to an accused, it is not necessary that there should be many circumstances creating doubts, if a simple circumstance creates reasonable doubt in a prudent mind about the guilt of accused, then he will be entitled to such benefit not as a matter of grace and concession, but as a matter of right,” the judge observed, acquitting the accused by giving them benefit of doubt.

Defence counsel Muhammad Ashraf Samo, rejecting the charges, said his clients were innocent and had falsely been implicated by the police at the instigation of their high-ups. “Neither the accused were arrested from the alleged place of the incident nor anything was recovered from their possession. The alleged recovery of weapons had been foisted upon them by the police,” he claimed. He pointed out that the alleged arms were licenced and they were not produced in the court during the trial proceedings as they had been burnt in a fire at the City Courts’ Malkhana.