After 16 months: Three men indicted in Shershah case

Public prosecutor asked to present witnesses on Feb 28.

KARACHI:

Three men accused in the Shershah scrap market carnage case were formally indicted here on Friday, 16 months after the merciless killing that claimed the lives of 13 owners and workers at the shops there.

Six others were injured in the attack on October 19, 2010, minutes after sunset allegedly over a refusal to pay extortion to alleged Lyari gangsters.

Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso of the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC I) read out the charges against accused Lal Muhammad Magsi, Shafi Mohammad and Aslam Pervez who were arrested on December 22, 2010.

As all of them denied the charges, the ATC judge asked the special public prosecutor to present the witnesses against them on February 28 after which the trial against them is likely to proceed on a day-to-day basis.

The two witnesses identified Shafi Muhammad and Aslam Pervez inside the prison.

Ten accused men — Ali Nawaz, Muhammad Tufail, Abid Ali, Asghar Ali, Tahseen, Abdul Rasheed, Johar, Mohammad Aijaz, Mohammad Iqbal and Muhammad Akbar — were earlier acquitted by the administrative judge of the ATCs in January 2011 as the person who registered the FIR had failed to identify them.

Thirteen Shershah workers and shop owners, including Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Arif, Amjad Ali, Zubair, Umair, Irshad, Mansoor, Nasir Kashif, Tariq, Anees and Ghulam Rasool were killed while Kashif, Arsalaan, Rashid, Zeeshan, Arif and Imran had sustained injuries.

The FIR was registered on October 20, 2010 on the basis of a written statement by a complainant, Nafees.

Three accused men, Hameed alias Mulla Raju, Noor Muhammad alias Baba Ladla and Rashid, are shown as absconding in the FIR. Mulla Raju later died in mysterious circumstances six months after the carnage.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2012.