Imran Farooq murder: ATC to indict suspects next week

Petition to drop terror charges in the case dismissed by court

ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) Thursday dismissed pleas seeking the removal of terrorism clauses in the Dr Imran Farooq murder case.

ATC-I Judge Syed Kausar Abbas Zaidi dismissed applications challenging the trial and requesting the court to remove section-VII of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, from the case.

After the applications were dismissed, the court fixed March 15 to indict the suspects, Khalid Shamim, Mohsin Ali and Moazzam Ali.

Two suspects, Shamim and Syed Mohsin Ali, have already recorded their confessional statements before the magistrate alleging that the slain MQM leader was killed as he was a “potent threat to MQM’s leadership.”

The third suspect, Moazzam Ali, has yet to record his confessional statement in the case.

Shamim had confessed that Farooq’s murder was a ‘birthday gift’ for the MQM founder Altaf Hussain while Syed’s statement revealed that he took part in the crime because he was promised a position in the London Secretariat of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

On December 5, the FIA had registered a case against MQM chief Altaf Hussain and other party leaders for their alleged involvement in the 2010 murder of Dr Farooq.

Dr Farooq had been stabbed and bludgeoned to death near his apartment on Green Lane in Edgware in September 2010.

The counter-terrorism wing of the FIA had registered the case under relevant clauses of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The clauses of conspiracy, assistance, abetment and assassination or murder had also been incorporated in the FIR.

Apart from Altaf, the FIR had named Muhammad Anwar, Iftikhar Hussain, Moazzam, Khalid, Mohsin and Kashif Kamran. These MQM members have already been grilled by the Scotland Yard.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2017.