21-year imprisonment: SHC sets aside suspect's conviction

Bench remands case back to ATC judge with direction to retry Muhammad Rehan Hussain within a month

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) set aside on Friday a 21-year imprisonment handed down to a said to be political activist in an arms and explosives case.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro, remanded the case back to the ATC-IX judge with direction to retry the suspect within a month.

Last year, the suspect, Muhammad Rehan Hussain alias Bihari Hitman, was sentenced to a collective sentence of 21 years in explosives and illicit weapon cases.

On July 12 last year, the ATC judge found Hussain guilty of carrying explosive material and unlicensed weapons.



Rangers had claimed to have arrested him from Surjani Town area in September, 2016.

The trial court had handed down 14 years of imprisonment to him in the explosives case and seven years in the illicit weapons case and also imposed a fine on him. However, the court ordered that both sentences will run concurrently.

According to the prosecution, the Rangers had picked up the suspect and detained him under a three-month preventive detention for his alleged involvement in targeted killing cases. Later, he was handed over to police, who booked him in explosives, illicit weapons and a number of murder cases.

In a press release, the paramilitary force had stated that Hussain was a Muttahida Qaumi Movement member, in charge of its Surjani Town sector, and involved in targeted killing of more than 200 people in the city.