ATC sentences militant to 13 years in prison

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) sentenced on Monday a member of banned outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) to 13 years of imprisonment, along with a penalty of Rs50,000, for facilitating terrorism.

The convict, Assad Qureshi alias Mullan, was presented before ATC-12 during the hearing at the Karachi Central Jail.

According to the police, Qureshi was accused of collecting donations for the SSP and providing financial aid to the banned outfit.

He was arrested on April 29 from Liaquatabad, and two receipt books for donations were confiscated from his possession.

Baloch, co-accused indicted

Separately, an ATC indicted notorious Lyari gangsters Uzair Baloch and Amin Buledi, in a case pertaining to vandalism and attacking the police during the Lyari operation.

Both the accused had denied the charges against them.

The court issued notices to the investigation officer (IO) and the case witnesses over the accused's denial of the charges and summoned them to the court at the next hearing.

Target killers remanded

Meanwhile, the administrative judge of an ATC handed over two alleged target killers, Naveed alias Kapi and Imam Bakhsh alias Waja, to the Counter-Terrorism Department police on physical remand until August 5.

The accused were presented before the court, where the IO stated that the accused, both of whom were reportedly close accomplices of Lyari gangster Uzair Baloch, had been arrested during raids in Golimar.

The IO claimed that the accused had confessed to being involved in 22 incidents of targeted killing, murders, kidnapping and other serious crimes.

He further maintained that the accused had received orders from a gangster, Jameel alias Changa, who was in India.

According to the IO, grenades, awan bombs, pistols and 2 kilogrammes of hashish were confiscated from Naveed and Bakhsh's possession. He moved the court to grant the police physical remand of the accused in order to carry out further investigation.

The court remanded the accused until August 5.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2020.