Daily Times

The Sindh High Court (SHC), on Monday, deferred the hearing of a petition for plea seeking suspension of a death penalty awarded by the military court to the suspects responsible for Safoora massacre till March 26.

In May 2015, armed men opened fire inside a bus carrying members of the Ismaili community near Safoora Chowk in Karachi, killing at least 43 people while wounding 13 others.

The counsel of the federation submitted a reply before the SC regarding the suspension of the death penalty awarded by the military court.

The federal government had responded, “Plea is not maintainable, Supreme Court should be contacted in this regard.”

The court provided the copies of the government’s reply to the applicants and adjourned the hearing till March 26.

Earlier, a military court had awarded death sentences to five suspects involved in Safoora Goth massacre. A spokesperson of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had said that the five convicts, Tahir Hussain Minhas s/o Khadim Hussain Minhas, Saad Aziz s/o Abdul Aziz Sheikh, Asad ur Rehman s/o Atique ur Rehman, Hafiz Nasir s/o Afzal Ahmed and Muhammad Azhar Ishrat S/O Ishrat Rasheed Ahmed, were active members of Al-Qaeda and tried in a military court.

Published in Daily Times, March 12^th 2019.