An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday released seven accused due to non-availability of evidence in a case pertaining to attack on Karachi Press Club (KPC).
The suspects, Umar Khan, Ubaid Ahmed, Khawaja Raza, Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Qadir, Imran and Irfan Khan were arrested by the law enforcers over their alleged involvement in attacking KPC and vandalising vehicles parked there.
The police submitted a report under section 497 (2) CrPC to the administrative judge of ATC stating that there was no concrete evidence available against the above-mentioned accused. The police report stated that the witnesses also did not identify the accused persons.
While accepting the police’s report, the court released all the accused. The case No FIR 43/ 2016 was registered with Artillery Median police station under Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and various sections of Pakistan Penal Code.
While protesting on a Chehlum of Qari Mumtaz Qadri, who was hanged last month after being convicted for killing then Punjab governor Salam Taseer, the protestors had attacked and vandalised KPC. The angry protestors also tried set ablaze a van of private news channel and beat several journalists.