Identification parade : Eyewitnesses depose against two ‘militants’

Suspects accused of killing qawwali maestro Amjad Sabri and MP personnel

KARACHI: Five out of six eyewitnesses deposed on Saturday in two separate courts against two suspected militants for their alleged involvement in the murder of qawwali maestro Amjad Sabri and four Military Police (MP) personnel.

Ishaq alias Bobby and Asim alias Capri, said to be affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorist group, were presented before three judicial magistrates by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) for their identification parade in three high-profile cases.

According to the investigators, the suspects allegedly killed Sabri in Liaquatabad in June this year, two MP personnel, Lance Naik Abdul Razzaq and Sepoy Khadim Hussain, near Parking Plaza in Saddar in July and two other MP personnel, Havildar Arshad Mehmood and Lance Naik Rashid Mehmood, near Tibet Centre on MA Jinnah Road in December last year.



Sabri murder case

The proceedings of the identification parade in Sabri's murder case were done inside the courtroom of District Central judicial magistrate Sajjad Ali Abbasi. According to sources privy to the matter, both the suspects were lined up along with a dozen dummy suspects before the judge and two eye witnesses were asked to identify them, one by one.

One of the witnesses picked out the suspects among the dummies and deposed that he saw Ishaq firing at Sabri, while Asim remained on the motorcycle. The other witness failed to identify the suspects as assailants. Meanwhile, two other witnesses were also called in and they testified that they had seen the two suspects near Sabri's house, the day before he was gunned down.

MP personnel killings

The suspects were presented before two judicial magistrates of District South, Fatima Nosheen and Ishrat Sultan, for similar proceedings in the MP personnel killing cases.

For both the cases, two eyewitnesses were asked if they identified the suspects as the assailants who killed MP police personnel near Tibet Centre and Parking Plaza. The witnesses deposed against the suspects, while the proceedings were carried out separately.



The judicial magistrates recorded the testimonies of the six eye witnesses and of two others under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The reports of proceedings will be submitted with the anti-terrorism courts trying the suspects for these murders.

After the court proceedings, the suspects were taken away by the CTD. The accused are on physical remand in police custody till December 5 in 24 cases of murder and attacks. The suspects were shown as arrested on November 7 at a press conference chaired by the Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Sindh IG Allah Dino Khawaja and other officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2016.