2009 Slaying: ATC acquits two men over boy’s murder

KARACHI:

Two men were acquitted of murder charges on Saturday by Anti-Terrorism Court I, in a saga that has seen the case visit three different courtrooms.

In late 2009, a boy called Nazik, who was about eight years old, was
kidnapped, sexually assaulted and then strangled.

His body was found in a sewer in Qayyumabad. His family had pointed to three men – Mukhtar, Shaukat Hussain and Rauf – as being responsible.

The former two surrendered to Gizri police station, while Rauf was declared on the run and an absconder.

The case was first heard by an anti-terrorism court, which had cleared Mukhtar and Hussain of the charges.

The complainant, the victim’s father Mohammad Sadiq, had appealed the case in the Sindh High Court but after their initial acquittal the two men had not shown up at the hearings since they had gone back to the Punjab, where they were from.

They were declared absconders and the Sindh High Court referred the case back to the anti-terrorism court.

Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso of ATC I heard the case for a year and ruled on Saturday that the two men had been acquitted.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2012.