Possessing explosives: ATC sends two militants to 14 years in jail

The suspects were arrested last year

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) sentenced on Thursday two men 'belonging to a proscribed organisation' to 14-year imprisonment on charges of possessing explosives and illicit weapons.

Muhammad Abid and Jamshed Khan alias Sahib were arrested in October last year by the Crime Investigation Department (now the Counter Terrorism Department) of the Sindh police in a raid conducted on the outskirts of the city. According to sub-inspector Qadeer Khan, who headed the raid team, he had received information about the presence of some 'Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan' militants hiding in a house in Shah Latif Town. The suspects were then rounded up as they did not put up any resistance.

The suspects pleaded, however, innocent and claimed that the Rangers had taken them into custody from their houses. They were later handed over to the police, the suspects told the court, adding that no recoveries were made from them.

The defence counsels also submitted that the case was based on 'malafide' investigation as the police did not bring any independent witnesses in the case. It was, they contended, a violation of section 103 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which relates to the search of places and of suspects. The section requires that "the officer or the other person who is about to make search of a place shall call upon two or more respectable inhabitants of the locality in which the place to be searched is situated, to attend and witness the search..."

On the other hand, the prosecution argued that the particular section did not apply on the officer investigating a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act. He added that the defence failed to produce any documentary evidence supporting its claim that the suspects were arrested by the paramilitary force.

After scrutinising the evidences in a relatively quick trial spanned over six months, the ATC-I judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso found the suspects guilty of the offence.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2015.