Next hearing to be held inside Rawalpindi central jail. PHOTO: AFP
ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) will indict three accused in the Imran Farooq murder case on May 2 – almost two years after the completion of formalities for the purpose.
ATC Judge Shahrukh Arjumand ordered the prosecution to submit charge-sheet against the accused persons – Syed Mohsin Ali, Moazzam Ali and Khalid Shamim – as well as Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain and other absconders by next hearing scheduled for May 2.
Taking up the case after its transfer from another ATC, Judge Arjumand observed “with great concern that challan [charge-sheet] against the absconding accused Altaf Hussain is yet to be submitted despite completion of formalities”.
In response, Special Public Prosecutor Shafqaat Hussain assured the court that a charge-sheet against all absconding accused – Altaf Hussain, Muhammad Anwar, Iftikhar Hussain and Kashif Khan Kamran – “will be positively submitted” by the next hearing.
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He also wondered why a charge-sheet was not presented and charges were not pressed against the three accused facing trial despite completion of formalities under Section 265-C of CrPC on May 12, 2016.
The case was recently transferred to ATC-II from ATC-I on the orders of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) chief justice.
The three accused are being detained in central jail, Rawalpindi, after orders to the effect were passed for trial to be held in jail on June 22, 2016 by the chief commissioner.
Wednesday’s order cleared the way for the trial to begin in jail.
Two of the suspects, Khalid Shamim and Syed Mohsin Ali, have already recorded their confessional statements before a magistrate, alleging that the slain MQM leader was killed because he was a “potent threat to the leadership of MQM.”
Third suspect, Moazzam Ali, has not recorded a confessional statement.
Shamim confessed that Farooq’s murder was a ‘birthday gift’ for MQM founder Altaf Hussain while Syed stated that he took part in the crime because he was promised a position in MQM’s London Secretariat.
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On December 5, 2015, the FIA registered a case against MQM chief Altaf Hussain and other party leaders for their alleged involvement in the 2010 murder of Dr Imran Farooq.
Dr Farooq was stabbed and bludgeoned to death near his apartment in London in September 2010.
On the previous hearing, Moazzam Ali’s wife Sadia Bano said she would commit self-immolation if the case was delayed further for any reason. “This trial has disturbed our whole life,” she told ATC Judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi.
“Hang my husband and end this misery,” Sadia insisted.
The wife of another suspect Khalid Shamim, Beena Khalid, reacted to Sadia’s statement, saying her husband should not be hanged on the basis of such an emotional statement.
“He is innocent,” she maintained, but agreed that the trial should not be delayed.
The court would resume hearing on May 2 inside the jail.
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