‘High profile terrorists’ acquitted after witnesses retract statements

LAHORE:

A judge on Saturday acquitted three men accused of murdering Dr Abdul Saboor Malik, the Shaikh Zayed Hospital administrator after two prosecution witnesses retracted their testimonies. 

The men are likely to be handed over to Sindh, where they are wanted for abducting a Satish Anand, a businessman.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Arif Hameed Sheikh ordered the release of Major (retd) Haroon Rasheed, Muhammad Nawaz Khan and Waheed Rasheed.

According to the prosecution, the men belong to the banned outfit Harkatul Mujahideen al-Islami.

Witnesses Abdul Faisal, who is also the complainant, and Abid Saleem told the court they had identified the three accused as the killers at the police’s behest.

Shaikh Zayed Hospital administrator Dr Abdul Saboor Malik, 43, was gunned down, on January 16, 2009, by three unidentified assailants near his Model Town residence. He was taken to Shaikh Zayed Hospital by Rescue 1122 where doctors pronounced him dead.

Model Town police claimed later that the Harkatul Mujahideen al-Islami had killed Saboor on account of his ties with the Ahmadiyyah community.  However, both Saboor’s widow and the Ahmadi community denied that Dr Saboor had links to the community.

Haroon Rasheed, a former Major, was arrested – by the Rawalpindi Motorway Police – allegedly when escorting an abducted businessman to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. According to the police four more people were arrested from Karachi after Rasheed confessed and identified them as accomplices.

Police claimed that all the suspects had confessed to killing the doctor on failing to abduct him for ransom.

Before being shifted to Kot Lakhpat Jail, the men were also held at Adiala Jail for their alleged involvement in the murder of Major General (retd) Ameer Faisal Alvi, his driver and a passer-by in 2008.

Fearing his release, the Sindh Home Department requested the Punjab Home Department, on February 27, 2012, that Rasheed be transferred to Sindh. Rasheed is also accused of kidnapping businessman and filmmaker Satish Anand.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, during his briefing in the Sindh Assembly, had stated that Rasheed had ties to al-Qaeda.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2012.