TTP chief, others declared proclaimed offenders in SSU bus attack case

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) declared on Tuesday the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief, former spokesperson and other members proclaimed offenders for plotting and executing a bomb attack on a bus carrying Special Security Unit personnel.

Three commandos were killed and 19 were injured as a motorcycle-borne bomb exploded near their bus on National Highway, minutes after they left Razzakabad police training centre in Malir for performing duty at SSU headquarters near Hassan Square, late in March this year. Shortly after the incident, the responsibility of the attack was claimed by the banned TTP in a statement.

Read: ATC issues non-bailable warrants for arrests of TTP chief, others

Since then, the police have yet to make any headway in the investigation of the case by making any arrests, except for implicating TTP chief Fazlullah, the then spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid, who has was reportedly killed in a United States' drone strike in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province and eight others, including a key militant commander, Khalid Umer Khorasani.

During a previous hearing, the court had sought a report from the investigation officer of the case, DSP Fakhrul Islam, regarding the attachment of the properties of the fugitive militants, with directions to initiate the process of proclamation against them.

Read: SSU personnel attack: TTP chief, others to become proclaimed offenders

The report was submitted to the court but failed to bring on record any property owned by the absconders. However, it confirmed that two prime suspects, Fazlullah and Shahid, lived in a slum area of Sohrab Goth but left long ago.

The ATC-I judge, Bashir Ahmed Khoso, after taking cognisance of the report, declared the absconding suspects as proclaimed offenders. This is the second time in seven months that Fazlullah and Shahid have been declared proclaimed offenders by the same court, following their trial in absentia in the Karachi airport attack case.

The SSU bus attack case has now been made dormant until the arrest of any of the involved suspects. Its FIR was registered on the complaint of a police constable injured in the attack under sections 302 (murder), 324 (attempt to murder), 427 (causing damage), 109 (abetting crime) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, and sections 3 (causing explosion likely to endanger life and property) and 4 (attempting to cause explosion) of the Explosives Substances Act, read with section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2015.