Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has ordered the release of three suspected facilitators of the Safoora Goth carnage on bail on Thursday.

Three suspects – former Fishermen Cooperative Society deputy director Sultan Qamar Siddiqui and his younger brother Hussain Umar Siddiqui and Naeem Sajid – were ordered to be released subject to the furnishing surety of Rs1million each.

Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who headed a division bench, gave this order after the authorities concerned failed to comply with the court orders regarding obtaining the case files of the suspects from a military court and producing them before this court.

The court has directed the suspects to surrender their passports.

The court was hearing the petitions filed the relatives of three suspects against the jail authorities for not releasing them despite having been acquitted by a military court.

During the previous hearing, the court had warned the relevant authorities to obtain case files of the suspects from a military court and produce them before this court or else it would order their release on bail.

The five suspects, including Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin, Tahir Hussain Minhas alias Sain, Asadur Rehman alias Malik and Mohammad Azhar Ishrat alias Majid, were condemned to death by the military court for killing around 45 members of the Ismaili community in May 2015.

Sultan Qamar Siddiqui, Hussain Umar Siddiqui and Naeem Sajid were arrested for allegedly facilitating the assailants. The suspects were also nominated in a criminal case relating to providing weapons to the assailants.

The families of the two brothers and another suspect approached had the court, submitting that the five accused had been convicted and their custody was handed over to the central prison. However, the court had acquitted their relatives in the case and despite their acquittal they are not being handed to the prison or released.

They said that they were no longer required by the military court since it had already concluded the trial. The court was pleaded to order the authorities to release the suspects.

The jail authorities had earlier informed the judges that the custody of the suspect has been handed over to them, however, the case files were not transferred to the relevant anti-terrorism court for appropriate orders.