KARACHI – In a dramatic development in the Shershah carnage case on Monday, a witness filed a constitutional petition for arresting and prosecuting nine men who were released a month ago after he had failed to identify them before the court.
Anti-Terrorism Court Administrator Judge Justice Sajjad Ali Shah had acquitted the nine suspects – Ejaz, Iqbal, Muhammad Akbar, Asghar Ali, Muhammad Tufail, Abdul Rasheed, Tehseen, Jauhar and Abid – on January 26 because the complainant had not identified them.
The accused men, who belong to the Magsi caste and are related to one other, had surrendered themselves to the police on January 11. They were produced before Sindh High Court’s Justice Shah who had remanded them to police custody until January 26.
The petitioner stated that he had received threats via telephone a day before the identification parade was held, which is why he did not identity the accused men before the court.
However, he added, he had now realised his mistake and so was requesting the court to direct the authorities to arrest and prosecute the nine accused men.
According to the prosecution, all the accused men, said to be associated with one of the several criminal gangs operating in Lyari, have been booked for killing 13 people, mostly traders, at the Shershah scrap market on October 19, 2010.
FIR No 578/2010 was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 at the Pak Colony police station on the complaint of Nafees against Baba Ladla and 16 others.
Only Lal Muhammad Magsi, who was arrested before the registration of the case on November 12, 2010, remains unidentified. It is pertinent to mention here that two other witnesses have already failed to identify two other accused men during an identification parade before Judicial Magistrate Rasool Bux Mirjat.
According to sources in the Special Investigation Unit, no evidence could be found against the detained men so far and the names of the said accused were implicated on the will of a political party, which considers these accused men as their rivals in the Lyari area.
The main accused Baba Ladla, Mullah Raju, Rashid and Imdad are still absconders.
EX-COP JAILED FOR ROBBERY: Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Jango Khan Rajput handed down 10 years rigorous imprisonment each to six accused men, including a former policeman.
According to the prosecution, former police officer Muhammad Sattar along with his aides Agha Nasir, Shoaib, Noman Khan, Kashif Khan and Shahzad had robbed a jewellery shop in the Kharadar police precincts. A case was registered in this regard and the accused men were arrested a week after the incident with the stolen items in their possession.
