Shershah scrap market case: Tenth suspect acquitted

The accused was released, like nine others before, due to insufficient evidence.

KARACHI: Ali Nawaz, the tenth person booked by the police for his alleged involvement in the Shershah scrap market shooting, was acquitted by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah on Tuesday.

The Administrative Judge of the anti-terrorism courts (ATCs) decided his plea for acquittal as the identification test failed.

This acquittal comes only a day after Muhammad Nafees, the complainant of the Shershah scrap market carnage case, in application to the ATC Administrative Judge expressed no confidence in the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) and appealed to the judge to transfer investigations of the case to the CID police. The judge had put the special public prosecutor on notice for February 12 to decide the transfer application.

On Tuesday, the counsel for the accused moved an application before the Administrative Judge, maintaining that like the nine other accused were released due to lack of evidence, his client should also be acquitted as none of the witnesses identified him as one of the assailants during the identification parade held inside the Central Prison, Karachi, a few days ago. The two witnesses had only identified Shafi Muhammad and Aslam Pervez.

Earlier, nine men, Muhammad Tufail, Abid Ali, Asghar Ali, Tahseen, Abdul Rasheed, Johar, Muhammad Aijaz, Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Akbar were acquitted by the Administrative Judge on January 26 as the complainant failed to identify them.

Meanwhile, three others, Hameed alias Mulla Raju, Noor Muhammad alias Baba Ladla and Rashid are still absconding.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2011.