Son calls it right decision as ATC acquits suspected murderer of Dr Auj

Hassan Auj laments family was not taken on board regarding progress in investigation

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) acquitted on Wednesday an accused arrested for the murder of Karachi University (KU) professor Dr Shakeel Auj, after the prosecution failed to prove charges against him during the trial.

Muhammad Mansoor, said to be an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), was booked in the murder of Dr Auj, the dean of KU's Islamic Studies Faculty, in a drive-by shooting on Nipa Bridge on September 18, 2014, within the limits of Aziz Bhatti police station.

The ATC-VIII judge, who presided over the trial, exonerated the accused after scrutinising the evidence and testimonies presented before him by the prosecution and the defence. He observed that the prosecution failed to establish the case.



Dr Auj was gunned down when he was travelling along with a colleague and a student to the Iranian Culture Centre, Clifton to attend a ceremony held in his honour for his services to the Islamic studies. He was shot in head by armed assailants riding a motorcycle. His student was also injured in the attack.

Two days later, banned terrorist outfit alQaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed responsibility of killing the professor in a video and threatened to carry out more attacks on people from Pakistan to Bangladesh, who according to the organisation, were involved in committing blasphemy.

The police, however, on January 28, 2015, arrested Mansoor. According to the investigators, Mansoor was booked by the Ferozabad police in a case of illegal possession of weapons and during the interrogation, he confessed to his involvement in the murder of Dr Auj. Six months later, he was charge-sheeted for the murder along with four absconding suspects, including Fahim Jabalpuri, Ehtisham and two unidentified persons.



The police had also claimed that upon the information provided by Mansoor, a 9mm pistol used in the commission of the offence was also recovered from a garbage dumping yard situated near the crime scene. Moreover, the student who was injured in the attack also identified the accused as one of the assailants in an identification parade before a District East judicial magistrate.

The case was registered under sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempting to murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, on the complaint of the eldest son of the slain professor, Hassan Auj.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Hassan said that Mansoor was rightly acquitted because, according to him, Mansoor was not the man who attacked his father. "[The murderers] were those who were threatening to kill my father for long," he said, adding that he shared the evidence with the investigators but they did not listen.



The case was plotted against the MQM for ulterior motives, Hassan maintained, adding that the family was not taken on board or informed about the progress in the investigation. "The banned outfits were after my father and there is evidence on record. I was never satisfied with the investigation."

He appealed to the authorities to take into account the evidence that he shared with the police and the Rangers and investigate the case accordingly. "The Counter-Terrorism Department also detained some people belonging to the banned outfit in connection with the murder of my father but they were never charged with the crime," Hassan lamented.