Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday was informed that the custody of three suspected facilitators of the Safoora Goth bus carnage was not handed over to the Central Prison of the provincial capital.

The superintendent of the prison submitted a report in one of the petitions filed by families of the facilitators who sought court directives for the military to send them back to the central prison. The official informed the judges that five accused who were condemned to death by a special military court were sent to the prison, however three of the accused were still in the custody of the army.

The five persons who were accused in the case, including Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin, Tahir Hussain Minhas alias Sain, Asadur Rehman alias Malik and Mohammad Azhar Ishrat alias Majid, have been sentenced to death by a military court. They had shot dead around 45 members of the Ismaili community in May 2015. Former Fishermen Cooperative Society deputy director Sultan Qamar Siddiqui and his younger brother Hussain Umar Siddiqui and Naeem Sajid were arrested for allegedly facilitating the assailants. The three accused were also nominated in a criminal case relating to providing weapons to the assailants.

The families of the facilitators – Naeem Sajid, Hussain Umar Siddiqui and Sultan Qamar Siddiqui – had filed separate petitions, seeking their shifting back to the prison. Both the petitions were fixed for hearing before different benches on Monday. Headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, a division bench directed the counsel for the family of the two accused brothers to satisfy the court as to the maintainability of the petition.

It directed the court office to fix both the petitions together before the same bench on the next hearing. Another division bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi heard the petition filed by the family of accused Naeem. The court put off the hearing till October 27 and directed the federal and provincial law officers to file comments of respondent authorities.

In the petitions, it was submitted that five accused had been convicted and their custody was handed over to the central prison. However, the whereabouts of the petitioners’ relatives were still unknown. The military court had already concluded the trial and they are no longer required by them. It was stated that three accused were required in a case pertaining of providing weapons to the assailants, which was pending before the district and sessions court of the east.

The petitioners complained to the judges that their relatives were not being produced before the relevant court in that case, nor were they handed over to the prison authorities. Citing Interior Affairs secretary, the Sindh chief secretary, home affairs secretary, Rangers director general, and others as respondents, the petitioner pleaded the court to direct the authorities to shift their relatives to the prison.

The court was further requested to order the authorities to allow the petitioners to meet the accused persons.