An anti-terrorism court indicted on Monday five men accused of involvement in the murder of TV journalist Wali Khan Babar.
They were: Mohammad Shahrukh, Faisal Mehmood, Mohammad Shakeel, Tahir Naveed Shah, and Syed Mohammad Ali Rizvi.
Babar was shot dead on January 13, 2011 in the Super Market area of Liaquatabad.
According to the prosecution, the accused men were arrested on April 7, 2011 in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and interrogated by a joint investigation team (JIT) comprising senior officials from the Military Intelligence, the Inter Services Intelligence, the Rangers Intelligence, police officers of the Special Branch and the Intelligence Bureau.
The arrested men told the JIT that their group leader, Faisal alias Mota, received orders from a man named Agha to kill Babar. All five of them confessed to their involvement in the murder.
The police charged that the defendants along with their absconding associates — Kamran alias Zeeshan, Junaid, Saeed, Liaquat and Faisal — had killed the journalist.
The accused men were identified by a witness before the judicial magistrate and one of them, Shahrukh, recorded his confessional statement before the court. The case was registered by the Super Market police station under murder and terrorism charges.
After the indictment of the accused, the ATC-III of Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon adjourned the hearing until March 7 for recording the statements of the prosecution witnesses.
Last year in October, ATC-I of Judge Khalida Yasin also indicted the five accused men, but Muhabbat Khan Babar, the brother of the slain journalist, filed an application before the Sindh High Court, expressing dissatisfaction over the charge-sheet and judge as well.
The high court then transferred the case to the ATC-III of Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon.
Later, the counsel on behalf of Muhabbat Khan Babar raised some objections before the trial court, for not including sub-section a of 7 in the Anti-Terrorism Act and not properly citing the place of incident and the names of the abettors in the final charge-sheet. The judge partially allowed the plea and ordered that the sub-section and the place of incident as well as the names of the abettors be included in the sheet.
It is also worth noting that last year in December, the Hyderabad police arrested two accused namely Kamran alias Baba and Fahim alias Daboo, and claimed that they confessed to their involvement in the murder of Wali Khan Babar.