Hamza murder case: ATC accepts ‘delayed’ reinvestigation report that it had rejected earlier

The report is similar to the charge sheet, says investigating officer’s representative.

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court accepted the same ‘delayed’ reinvestigation report on Friday which it had refused to accept on January 2 in the Hamza Ahmed murder case.

On Thursday, the ATC-III had not accepted the report on the grounds that the stipulated period for the submission of report granted by the Sindh High Court (SHC) had lapsed. The court was hearing the murder case of Ahmed, a 17-year-old student, was allegedly gunned down by a security guard of another teenager, Shoaib Naveed, after they got into a heated argument outside a restaurant in Defence Housing Authority on April 27, last year.

The report

DSP Manthar Ali Bhayo appeared before the court on behalf of the investigating officer and submitted the reinvestigation report on Friday.



The reinvestigation report revealed that there was no witness to confirm that the guard had opened fire on Ahmed on the orders of Naveed. The report added that the medical evidence didn’t support the complainant’s claims either.

The police said that CCTV records obtained from two cafes located at the site of the incident failed to show anything relevant. “Recording of CCTV footage didn’t cover the actual incident,” stated the report.

Police have declared Naveed and the two drivers, Idrees and Mushtaq, as ‘harbouring offenders’, adding that the role of Naveed’s father could not be determined. Naveed, Idrees and Mushtaq have all been released on bail.

Rehman, who is the prime suspect in the case, has once again been declared as an absconder in the report.

Bhayo, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that there wasn’t much difference between the charge sheet submitted earlier before the court and the current report. On Friday, the court while accepting the report, issued a non-bailable warrant for the absconder.

Ahmed’s father had approached the SHC for a reinvestigation of the case. The SHC allowed his application and appointed DIG AD Khawaja as the investigating officer in the case.

While asking the court to admit the report in order to avoid further delay in the commencement of trial, the deputy district public prosecutor, Abdul Maroof, had contended on Thursday that police had filed an application in the SHC for extending the period for report submission. While the application was still pending, the court linked the acceptance of the report to an extension order of the SHC.

The police had submitted a charge sheet earlier against Naveed and his father along with Mushtaq and Idrees for abetting the crime while security guard Rehman was shown as an absconder for allegedly shooting the victim.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (punishment for premeditated murder), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code as well as Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act 1997 at the Darakhshan police station. The hearing was adjourned till January 22.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2014.