ATC acquits all accused in church attack case

Separately, counsel for the petitioner argued that Hussain’s speeches showed that the MQM leaders were not patriotic

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court last week acquitted all 46 people nominated in an attack on a church and Christians’ houses in Sanda for ‘faulty investigation’ by the police.

A mob had attacked the Christian neighbourhood after a resident was accused of desecration of Holy Quran.

Judge Aaqib Nazir said in his 17-page judgement that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the accused. He acquitted all the accused in the attack case. The judge ordered immediate release of Liaqat, one of the accused, who was in custody. Another accused, Muhammad Intizar, was declared a proclaimed offender because he had not surrendered to the court.

Police had declared 21 of the suspects innocent during their investigation. The court acquitted the rest.

According to the FIR registered under Sections 295, 295-A, 436, 452, 395, 353, 337-F1, 337-A1 and 148 of the PPC and Sections 7-G, 7-D and 7-H of the Anti-Terrorism Act on the complaint of a police official on May 24, 2015, about 800 people had broken the gate of Saint Joseph Church in Dhup Sari and ransacked the worship place. They had also ransacked the houses of the Christian community and set fire to their belongings. Operations DIG Dr Haider Ashraf and Millat Park SHO Naveed Akmal were injured in the incident.

No one from the Christian community appeared in the court to testify against the accused. Two members of the Christian community appeared in the court but spoke in favour of the accused. They denied that the crowd had ransacked the church or houses of the Christian community.

During the trial, the court learnt that Muhammad Maalik, one of the people the police had nominated in the case, had died in 1986.

The prosecutor declared two witnesses, Constable Mumtaz Hussain and Constable Arif Hussain, hostile. The Operations DIG did not record a proper statement. He only mentioned one of the accused in the court by name and could not identify him when he was shown his picture among others.

Sub-Inspector Anees told the court that the accused had ransacked the houses of Alamgir Masih and Saleem Masih. When Alamgir and Saleem appeared in the court they denied that people ransacked their houses.

LHC allows changes to plea against MQM

Lahore High Court last week asked the petitioner’s counsel to submit a copy of the application he had moved with the federal government for cancellation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s registration and allowed him to amend his petition.

Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah heard the petition filed by lawyer Aftab Virk challenging registration of the MQM as a political party after Altaf Hussain’s recent anti-Pakistan speech.

During the hearing, Ahmad Awais, counsel for the petitioner, argued before the court that under the Constitution of Pakistan every political party must be loyal to the state.

He said that Hussain’s speeches showed that the MQM leaders were not patriotic.

Under the Political Parties Ordinance 2002, he said, the federal government could ban any party that was not patriotic or loyal to the state.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2016.