Policeman’s murderer convicted

KARACHI: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) has awarded death sentence to an accused in murder of a policeman.

According to the police, Raheel along with co-accused opened fire at the policemen deployed for the patrolling at Aram Bagh area in which a policeman, Noman, was killed on the spot while another policeman Suhail got injured.

The court awarded him capital punishment and 22 years of imprisonment when he was proven guilty on charges of encounter with police, killing of a policeman and possessing illegal arms.

Hate speech case

Another ATC sought further witnesses on next hearing after the completion of arguments over the statement given by witness DSP Kunwar Asif in two cases pertaining to anti-state slogans, damaging government property, attack on media house and terrorism. Dr Farooq Sattar, Amir Khan, Qamar Mansoor, Gulfaraz Khattak and others accused appeared before the court.

Police produced prosecution witness DSP Kunwar Asif before the court. Asif said that “I am acquainted with the leaders present inside the court. They were present at the scene when the anti-state speech was being made.” He said the senior leaders of the MQM were not there during the riots. The hate speech was continuously played in the protest camp set up from Aug 17 to Aug 21 and the incident took place on Aug 22.

A plea for exemption from the court was filed by MQM leader Kunwar Naveed. The court accepted the plea and adjourned the hearing till September 14 and summoned more witnesses on the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2019.