ATC holds first hearing of Justice Baqar attack case

Directs CTD SSP to appoint new IO; case transferred to ATC from military courts

KARACHI: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) heard the case pertaining to an attack on Supreme Court Justice Maqbool Baqar on Saturday. The court sent a letter to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) SSP directing him to appoint an inspector as the new investigation officer (IO) of the case. This was the first hearing of the case held before the ATC after a military court transferred the case back to the ATC after a passage of four years.

Jail authorities produced three suspects, namely Abu Bakr alias Masoom Bala alias Khaksaar, Muhammad Mawia, and Yasser Arafat alias Musa, who were all affiliated with a banned outfit.

Military court transfers Justice Maqbool Baqar attack case back to ATC

The CTD representative told the court that the former case IO had retired and could not appear before the court because he was ill and in his village. The court directed the CTD SSP to appoint a new IO and adjourned the hearing till December 21.

The case was transferred to the military courts on November 6, 2015, and transferred back to ATC 6 on November 15, 2019.

Case history

According to the case challan, Justice Baqar, a Sindh High Court judge at the time, was returning home from the court on June 26, 2013, when a powerful explosive was detonated near Burns Road. Nine persons, including Rangers and police officials, were killed in the attack, while 21 others were injured.

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The attack was orchestrated by an extremist group affiliated with a banned religious outfit. The challan further states that police sub-inspector Farooq Sati had arrested Abu Bakr on July 11, 2013. The accused, Abu Bakr, had revealed during interrogation that Hafiz Bashir Ahmed Laghari was involved in this attack as well as several other recent incidents of terrorism.

Laghari was killed following a police raid but his accomplices, Mawia and Qari Amin, were arrested. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2019.