Arshad Pappu murder case: Trial suffers another deadlock as victim’s wife, son go missing

Arshad Pappu was allegedly brutally murdered by members of rival Lyari-based gangs

KARACHI: After experiencing its fair share of delays, courtesy of the unlucky incidents of witnesses' assassination, changing statements and missing documents, the murder case of the notorious gangster, Arshad Pappu, and his aides faced yet another setback when the police informed the court that they were unable to trace the whereabouts of the murdered gangster's wife and his son.

Pappu's wife is the complainant and her son is an important eyewitness in the case. The latter, according to the FIR, saw some armed men abducting his father, uncle and their friend from an apartment in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) where they had reportedly gone to attend a party in March, 2013.

Since the case is in the evidence stage, the court had asked the police to present the complainant and her son before the court to record their statements. The investigation officer, Inspector Abid Ansari, however, submitted a report stating that the duo could not be traced as they had moved out of the city. The report stated that several attempts were made to reach the witnesses at their given addresses, but in vain. It added that they had shifted somewhere in Sakran, Balochistan.  The IO sought time from the judge, Akhlaq Hussain Larak, which he approved and asked to present the witnesses before the court at the next hearing on August 8.

The triple murder case is being tried for the past two years during which a number of witnesses have turned hostile and many have been killed.

In April this year, two police constables, who were earlier believed to be key witnesses, deviated from their previous statements before the judge.

They had identified the arrested suspects as kidnappers and deposed before a South district magistrate that police officers, Javed Baloch, Yusuf Baloch and Chand Khan Niazi, had picked up Pappu, his younger brother Yasir Arafat and aide Jumma Shera from DHA. The trio was driven to Lyari where the police officers handed them over to their rivals.

Pappu and his associates were brutally murdered: they were tortured, lynched to death, their bodies were chopped into pieces and then burnt by their gangs' rivals, including Uzair Baloch and his then lieutenant, Noor Muhammad alias Baba Ladla. According to a source, there are around four to five witnesses left in the case to be examined by the court. Once their statements are recorded, the case will proceed to the statements of the accused, followed by the final arguments.

"The court is doing its best to decide the case at the earliest and has directed the investigation officers to ensure the production of witnesses on time," added the source, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Five accused - Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Shahjehan Baloch, Zakir Baloch, Zubair alias Dada and police officers Javed and Yusuf - are currently in jail on judicial remand, while a suspect, Abdur Rehman, is on bail.

Pappu, the son of drug lord Haji Lalu, was also booked in a number of cases pertaining to murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, extortion, drugs, possession of illicit weapons and explosives but was never convicted due to lack of evidence. A year before his murder, he was acquitted in the murder case of Faiz Muhammad alias Mama Faizu, the father of Uzair Baloch.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2015.