Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Two prosecution witnesses in the murder case of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq recorded final statements in an anti-terrorism court on Wednesday.

Muhammad Asif told the court that 24 transactions were made in Moazzam Ali’s account – one of the accused in the case who was indicted last month. He denied the claim that the bank statement was forged. The other witness who recorded his statement was identified just as Shahid.

When he was told that another prosecution witness, former deputy director of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Badruddin Baloch, was not present to record his statement, ATC judge Shahrukh Arjumand expressed his displeasure and said that arrest warrants would be issued for him if he failed to appear in the next hearing. The hearing was then adjourned till July 9. Farooq’s murder case was registered in December 2015 and the three accused were arrested later in the same month.

Relevant clauses of the ATA and sections on conspiracy, abatement and assassination were included in the FIR. Farooq, 50, was murdered in front of his house in London on September 16, 2010. A post-mortem examination of his body revealed that he was stabbed to death. According to the London police, a kitchen knife and a brick used in the attack were recovered from the crime site.

Published in Daily Times, June 28^th 2018.