In cold blood: Charge sheet submitted for the murder of Zardari’s personal gunman

Investigation officer says Azhar beat up victim with a stick.

KARACHI:

The law enforcers submitted a supplementary charge sheet on Friday before an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in a case pertaining to the killing of a personal gunman of former president Asif Ali Zardari.

Saddam Kakar, an activist of a political party, along with six accomplices, was charged with killing Zardari's gunman, Abdul Rehman Irani, in the emergency section of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) in December 2012.

The investigation officer also submitted the supplementary charge sheet against a suspect, Azhar aka Mullah, following his arrest. The officer said that Azhar was involved in the murder and had abetted the crime.

In the charge sheet, the investigation officer said that Azhar had beaten up the victim with a stick and then Saddam and others had opened fire on him in the emergency ward of JPMC.

The district public prosecutor, Abdul Maroof, said that the prosecution has included 21 witnesses in the case and the amended charges would be framed against the suspects in custody. The charge sheet revealed that only two suspects - Kakar and Azhar - were in police custody while five others were still on the run.

The prosecutor said that the court will supply copies to the suspect under Section 265-C (supply of statements and documents to accused) of the Criminal Procedure Code on Saturday. An ATC-III link judge, Anand Ram Seerani, accepted the charge sheet for hearing and issued non-bailable warrants of arrests for the absconders in the case.

According to the prosecution, Irani was sitting at his friend's hotel in Saddar when Kakar came along with absconding accomplices and engaged in an armed clash with the deceased, leaving one of their accomplices, Ramzan Kakar, dead and Irani wounded. The injured accomplice was then taken to the JPMC, it added. Kakar and the other suspects went to the JPMC and opened fire at Irani, who was wounded and was lying on a stretcher in JPMC's emergency ward, it added.

Haji Fateh, Wasal Khan aka Saail, Abdul Bari Kakar, Habibullah and Shaikh Baz are the accused that have been declared absconders in the case. The police said that the offence was allegedly committed at the instigation of Bari, who is said to be the local leader of a political party.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2014.