Da’ish facilitator handed jail term

An anti-terrorism court sentenced on Wednesday a man, Saleem Ahmed, to five and a half years of imprisonment after finding him guilty of facilitating banned outfit Da’ish.

ATC-12 further directed an inquiry against investigation officer (IO) Ali Haider and head constable Majid Khan, declaring that "faulty investigation by them weakened the prosecution's case."

During the hearing at Karachi Central Jail, besides sentencing the convict to a jail term, the court imposed a fine of Rs20,000 on him, stating that if he was unable to pay the penalty, his jail term would be extended by eight months.

Moreover, the court observed that the case investigation had been "faulty" and the IO made major mistakes while entering details in case documents.

Specifically pointing out that he had wrongly mentioned the names in a statement by a prosecution witness, the court stated that such grave errors "weakened the prosecution's case."

It directed the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) AIG to launch a probe against Haider and Khan, seeking a report from him within 30 days.

According to the CTD, Ahmed was arrested on charges of being in contact with the banned outfit and providing it financial assistance. A joint investigation team had also declared him "grey", CTD officials said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2020.