Zain murder case: ATC rejects Kanju’s bail application

LAHORE:

An anti-terrorism court on Monday rejected the bail application of Mustafa Kanju, accused of killing 16-year-old Zain Rauf.

During Monday’s hearing, Kanju’s lawyer requested the court to grant him bail as most of the prosecution witnesses had retracted their statements.

However, the prosecution opposed the request. The counsel said that Kanju had bribed the witnesses to stop them from recording their statements. He requested the court to summon the witnesses.

The ATC rejected the bail application and summoned the witnesses to appear before the court on September 30.

On April 1, Mustafa had allegedly opened fire in Cavalry Ground area, killing Zain and leaving another pedestrian injured. On June 30, the ATC had indicted Kanju and four others: Asif, Sadiq, Sadullah and Akram.

On August 15, Muhammad Sohail Afzal, a relative of Zain’s, appeared before the court and recorded his statement, saying that he did not recognise the accused, and that he had reached the crime scene an hour and a half after the killing.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2015.