Hamza was shot dead in Karachi on April 28. PHOTO: FILE
Exactly a week after the Anti-Terrorism Court announced death sentence for two of the suspects in the Shahzeb Khan murder case, police investigators recommended that the murder trial of Hamza Ahmed - who was killed on April 27 - should be tried by the ATC after inserting sections of Anti-Terror Law.
Hamza was allegedly killed by a security guard, Amal Rehman, who was with 16-year-old Shoaib Naveed in Khayaban-e-Seher of the Defence Housing Authority, Karachi. After the murder, Amal was declared an absconder while Shoaib was taken into custody. He was recently released on bail.
The Darakhshan police had initially registered a case under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against Shoaib, his father Naveed Ahmed, Mushtaq, Muhammad Idrees, Abid Hussain and Amal Rehman.
While remanding the three suspects - Mushtaq, Muhammad Idrees and Abid Hussain - to police custody, the judge had directed the investigation officer to submit a final charge-sheet against them.
The investigation officer, Hameed Khan, had submitted an application with the district public prosecutor to seek his legal opinion regarding the final charge sheet of the case before submitting it in the court.
Prosecutor’s opinion
After scrutinising the content of the FIR, the facts and evidence, the district public prosecutor, Abdul Wahid Ansari, objected that proper legal sections had not been applied in the proposed final charge sheet.
The prosecutor advised that the offence alleged on the suspects, fully attracts the provision of section 6, sub section (2) (a) (b) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, punishable under section 7 and directed him to insert these sections in the FIR.
“The Investigation Officer is required to do the needful and submit the report under section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code before the competent court of law after seeking legal opinion from the special public prosecutor,” stated Ansari.
In his scrutiny note, Ansari stated that the act of the suspects created sense of insecurity among people of the vicinity where the offence was committed and destabilised the public at large.
The investigation officer, after adding sections of the Anti-Terror Law in the FIR, submitted an application before the judicial magistrate in district south, Noor Muhammad Baloch. He sought the court’s permission to submit the final charge sheet in ATC since the case falls within the jurisdictions of the ATC.
A link judge was hearing the case as the judge concerned, Shabbir Ahmed Channa, was on leave. The link judge directed the IO Hameed Khan to approach the court concerned to seek permission to submit the final charge sheet in the ATC.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2013.
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A piece of advice to Mr. Doom, interesting to know that there is such a thing as a "regular murder" ie after having a cup of tea Shoaib thought "Let us have a murder to change the mood".
Nevertheless the boundaries of whether a case qualifies for ATC ( section 7 ATA) are very clearly defined in the law. A) An act of violence which takes place at a public place in such a manner that it creates the feeling of insecurity and terror in the minds of common public B) The equipment used in the violence should be bigger than a hand held pistol of a bore exceeding 7mm calibre.
this case qualifies on both criteria, firstly Shoaib shot Hamza on main Khayaban e Seher in the midst of famous restaurants, Greenwich university and shops, secondly the weapon used was MP5 sub machine gun of 9mm calibre.
@ DOOM: 'Just a regular murder'...interesting heartless choice of words
I think it's very wrong that every case is arbitrarily booked under terrorism laws when it is obviously not terrorism. This is just plain regular murder. So was the Shahrukh case. Why are they tried in an anti-Terrorism court? Isn't this a rights abuse?
This has become the standard all over the world. Terrorism is vaguely defined and authorities are free to call terrorism whenever they feel like. We keep calling on the West to stop calling everyone a terrorist willy-nilly, but we do the same.
To finish the Sense of insecurity among the people of the area in particular and people of all Pakistan in general the people involved in this gruesome murder should be hanged to death, this will be hard but Pakistan Judiciary will have to take these steps to pass a clear message that rule of law is for everyone and no one is above the law.Justice should be served, culprits should be punished, and punishment should be such that no one dare to repeat these heinous action again, people must be taught that there will be consequences for your irresponsible and arrogant actions.