KARACHI, Feb 26: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday reserved judgment in two petrol pump blast cases against two workers of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi.
Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 fixed Feb 28 for pronouncement of the verdict after hearing final arguments from special public prosecutor Mazhar Qayum and defence counsel M. R. Syed.
Accused Mohammad Rafi alias Doctor and Syed Ahmer Kazmi alias Shahbaz have been prosecuted for planting explosive devices at Askari Petrom Pump on the Rashid Minhas Road and Nawaz Perol Pump at the Sharea Faisal on May 15, 2003.
KIDNAPPING CASE: Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-3 recorded statements of two prosecution witnesses in a kidnapping case.
Zulfiqar Ahmed, Safar Iqbal and Sajid Iqbal are being prosecuted for allegedly kidnapping Jahanzeb, 8, and Komal, 7. The children who were kidnapped near Carson Complext in the block-II of Gulshan-i-Iqbal on December 10, 2001 were recovered after 14 months. They were kidnapped when they were going with their mother for their school on foot.
The kidnappers, who also beat up the mother before taking away her children, demanded Rs2.5 million as ransom. They kept the children in Karachi for four months and then shifted them to the house of accused Zulfiqar in Rawalpindi.
The mother, however, told the kidnappers that she was not in a position to pay ransom amount in lump sump. She agreed to pay the amount in instalments and issued a cheque for Rs250,000 in the favour of absconding accused Mohammad Ashraf.
The kidnapped children came into contact with their mother on the internet. The woman reported the matter to the CPLC which found out the address of accused Zulfiqar after tracking down the Internet Service Provider (IPS).
A special team of the CPLC and Karachi police raided on March 23, 2003 the house of Zufiqar with the assistance of Rawalpindi police and recovered the children. Accused Zulfiqar was allegedly arrested red-handed and the two other accused, who are real brothers, were arrested an hour later on his lead.
The police initially charged the three accused with abduction under Section 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code and submitted the final charge-sheet in the sessions court. Their fourth accomplice, Mohammad Ashraf, a Navy personnel, was shown absconder in the charge-sheet. The absconding accused sought a pre-arrest bail from the sessions court.
It was alleged that there was a monetary dispute between absconding accused Ashraf and the victims' father, Zafar Iqbal.
The sessions court, however, transferred the case to the administrative judge of the ATCs at the time of indictment as it involved the offence of kidnapping for ransom. Accused Ashraf, who was on bail, absconded after the shifting of the case to the ATC.
Special public prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa is appearing on behalf of the state, while Mohammad Ilyas Tanoli and Raheem Khan Bangash are representing the three accused.
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