KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi Monday indicted the accused in the Intezar Ahmad murder case.
The accused pleaded not guilty as the charges were read out. The court also issued notices to witnesses in the case, who had been given a clean chit by the JIT.
All eight accused are officers from the Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) Karachi. Tariq Rahim, Station House Officer (SHO) Tariq Mehmood, Azhar Ahsan, Fawad Khan, Daniyal, Bilal and Shahid were arrested earlier and Rahim is on temporary bail.
The case was later adjourned until May 26.
A protest was organised outside the court as Intizar’s father was stopped from entering the court. His lawyer requested the Department of Jail Affairs to take notice of the incident or else a plea would be submitted in court. “It is the right of the plaintiff to be present at the hearing,” the lawyer argued, adding that restricting him was a violation of the law.
Earlier, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), formed to probe the murder of Malaysia-returned student Intezar, failed to find a motive behind the killing and termed it a ‘cold-blooded, rash and negligent’ act by plainclothes police officials.
The final report by investigation team cleared former ACLC chief SSP Muqaddas Haider and others accused by the victim’s father, including Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) Inspector Amir Hameed, his brother Sohail, niece Mahrukh Sohail and the victim’s friend Madiha Kiyani.
However, the report recommended a departmental action against Haider for negligence in adopting standard operating procedures (SOP).
In March, three officers of the ACLC were dismissed from service for their alleged involvement in the case. Inspector Tariq Rahim, Tariq Mehmood and Azhar Hussain Rizvi were suspended from their duties by the newly appointed CIA DIG, Amin Yousufzai.
The police had given a clean chit to former SSP Haider of the ACLC and Madiha Kiyani, the girl present in the car when Intezar was gunned down, in its interim charge sheet issued earlier in March.
Intezar was shot dead on January 13 on Khayaban-e-Ittehad of Karachi’s upscale DHA neighbourhood after officials and personnel of the ACLC resorted to indiscriminate firing on his vehicle, killing the victim on the spot.
Although police had initially claimed that the boy was killed in an act of targeted killing by at least two armed assailants riding a motorcycle, it was later revealed that the ACLC officials and police personnel were behind the brutal killing.
Published in Daily Times, May 15th 2018.