Five suspects allegedly involved in the attack on police personnel and other violent incidents in Chakra Goth were remanded on Monday into police custody until September 3. Sindh High Court’s Administrative Judge Justice Maqbool Baqar remanded the five alleged accused named Mohsin, Subhan, Abu Shar Bengali, Muhammad Atif and Abdul Hakeem.
The suspects were produced before the trial court by police seeking their physical remand for further interrogation in different cases of violence and terrorism. Three of the suspects, Mohsin, Subhan and Bengali, were booked by the police for terrorist attacks in Chakra Goth that allegedly resulted in the death of two citizens and injuries to several others while properties being set ablaze.
According to the complainant of the case, Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party leader Ashiq Chandio, the attackers are workers of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). Nominating more than 30 MQM workers in the case, the petitioner stated that on the day of the incident, he was at his residence when more than 50 armed men entered the area and opened indiscriminate fire. The assailants also fired at his house resulting in the death of two boys, Muhammad Hassan and Muhammad Sulman, he added.
A case was registered at the Zaman town police station, implicating the accused for murder and attempt to murder under the Anti-Terrorist Act (ATA). Suspects Atif and Hakeem, along with accomplices Shahid alias Burger, Mansoor, Shahid Chatta and others, were nominated in the case of another incident in Chakra Goth, in which a passenger bus carrying police personnel police was attacked on August 20. Five policemen died and over twenty more were injured in the act
According to the prosecution, Burger was killed when the policemen returned fire while Atif and Hakeem were arrested from the spot. The other assailants managed to escape under the cover of firing. The police further stated that one Kalashnikov was recovered from the deceased, and one TT pistol and one repeater from the arrested suspects. Zaman town police had registered seven FIRs against the suspects under sections 147, 148, 149, 435, 436, 324, 427, 302 and 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Article 7 of ATA 1997.
