Case reopened : ATC sends Minhaj Qazi on six-day physical remand

Absconder was wanted for murder of then KESC MD, two others in 1997

KARACHI: Nearly a year after Saulat Mirza was executed, the 1997 triple murder case of then Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) managing director and two others has been reopened, as the anti-terrorism court (ATC) administrative judge remanded on Tuesday a suspect who had been absconding for all these years.

The police produced Minhaj Qazi alias Asad before the judge to seek his remand. Qazi is said to be one of the shooters who attacked then KESC chief Shahid Hamid, his driver, Ashraf Brohi, and guard, Khan Akbar, in Defence Housing Authority and subsequently killed all of them. The investigating officer told the judge that Qazi was absconding in the case and has now been arrested, therefore, his custody is required for interrogation in the case.

Qazi was picked up by the Rangers during a targeted raid in Garden in February and was grilled for three months under the Anti-Terrorism Act. After his detention period, a joint-interrogation team's report surfaced in which he had reportedly confessed to the triple murder.

After listening to the investigating officer, the judge sent the suspect in police custody on six-day physical remand and sought a progress report on the next hearing.

This is the suspect's second remand in recent days, as earlier Qazi was interrogated by Nabi Bukhsh police in an illicit weapons case.

The triple murder case has gained much attention since last year, when death warrants for Mirza, convicted in 1999, were issued by an ATC after the moratorium on capital punishment was lifted. Mirza was hanged on May 12 last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2016.