Civilian’s killing: ATC rejects Rangers personnel’s plea to transfer case to regular court

Accused soldier claimed he hit victim accidentally when he was aiming for tyres

KARACHI: After a hiatus of almost two years, the murder case against a Rangers personnel is once again on the cause list of an anti-terrorism court (ATC) and is likely to head towards the conclusive stage - that, too, for the second time.

Paramilitary soldier Shahzad Masih is charged for killing a civilian, Ghulam Haider. The incident, in which the young man lost his life to the bullet of a sophisticated weapon piercing his head from the back and going out from his eye, occurred on June 4, 2013, in Shah Faisal Colony.

On Wednesday, the ATC-IV judge, Kausar Sultana, who recently took up the case following her appointment at the special court, dismissed an application moved by the accused seeking transfer of the case to a regular court on the ground that it was not a terrorism act.

Haider, who had married around 25 days before he was shot, was driving his cousin, Asif, a dialysis patient, to the hospital in Korangi. According to his cousin, he was in a hurry that he perhaps did not notice when the Rangers men signalled him to stop. Then, he heard a gunshot and found his cousin in a pool of blood.

The accused soldier, in his statement before the court, has maintained that he had no intention to kill the man. Masih claims that he attempted to stop the vehicle by shooting at the tyre but the bullet accidently hit the man.

The trial was initially presided over by the ATC-I judge, Bashir Ahmed Khoso, who after scrutinising evidences, reserved his verdict in the case in February, 2014.

But it was never pronounced courtesy of a number of deferments and the case was transferred to ATC-IV, where Anand Ram D Sairani was the judge at that time. The case remained lingering on until a new judge came.

When the case was taken up again for disposal, the attorney representing the accused moved an application under section 23 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and argued for shifting the case to a regular court, that is, a sessions court.

The judge heard arguments on the plea from both the sides and dismissed the plea, observing that the case fell within the ambit of the ATA. The court has now fixed February 3 for the next hearing of the case and is likely to record final arguments. Afterwards, the case will move towards the judgment phase.

Initially, the case was not registered under the ATA until the Supreme Court, on July 26, intervened and ordered the case should be decided within seven days.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2016.