Three airport attack suspects acquitted of encounter, attempted murder charges

Karachi

Three men accused of facilitating attackers of the Jinnah International Airport Karachi in June 2014 were acquitted from the charges of engaging in armed encounter with law enforcers and attempted murder by Additional District and Sessions Court housed inside the Central Jail complex on Wednesday.

The additional district and sessions judge while announcing his verdict said the prosecution had failed to provide enough evidence against Asif Zaheer, Nadeem alias Burger and Sarmad Siddiqui to prove the charges of engaging in a police encounter and attempted murder. 

However, the court did not make any comment about the main case of the Karachi airport attack being heard in an anti-terrorism case, in which the three suspects are still being tried for alleged facilitation of the attackers by providing them with illegal weapons. Initially the police claimed to have arrested the accused in Essa Nagri in October 2014 and termed the three men to be activists of a banned outfit. The accused were subsequently produced before an anti-terrorism court.

However, later the police claimed that the accused were arrested with illegal weapons in different raids conducted in the PECHS area and during interrogation they had confessed about their involvement in providing arms and ammunition to the absconding co-accused Malik Mumtaz, who was later ‘used’ by terrorists in the attack.

The counsels for two accused, Asif Zaheer and Nadeem alias Burger, had challenged the cases of police encounter and possession of explosive material before an anti-terrorism court. They had contended that their clients were facing trial under the provisions of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and Section 7 of the said law did not make the accused bound to be tried in an ATC. Hence, they argued, the cases pertaining to the possession of illegal arms should be transferred to a sessions court.

Four suspects, Asif Zaheer and Nadeem alias Burger, Sarmad Siddiqui and Master Essa, had been arrested in connection with the Karachi airport case and one of them, Master Essa, had been acquitted at the initial stages of prosecution by the police. The anti-terrorism court concerned had also granted the police’s plea for releasing Master Essa and acquitting him of all charges.

The court had been informed that Master Essa had been arrested on information provided by accused Sarmad and a Joint Interrogation Team (JIT) had interrogated him on November 14, 2014, which found him innocent.

Essa was finally released by the police on November 16 under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code due to want of proof.  It was later decided that the three detained suspects, Asif Zaheer, Nadeem alias Burger and Sarmad Siddiqui will be tried. 

Sarmad Siddiqui had claimed that he was innocent and was implicated falsely. He also sent an application to the president that he was arrested three months earlier than the date shown in the police records. He also alleged that a few corrupt policemen had demanded millions of rupees for his release and his family had not been able to arrange for it.

Sarmad Siddiqui had also moved an application to the President of Pakistan while being detained in the Central Prison. The President House took notice on his application and issued notices to the Sindh DG Rangers, IG Police and other authorities concerned to investigate the claim of Sarmad that he had been arrested August 15, 2014, from his situated on Sharea Faisal by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Sindh Police. However, the police had declared his date of arrest to be October 28, 2014, leading Siddiqui to argue that he had been kept in illegal detention for three months and was being implicated falsely in the Karachi airport attack case. 

He had claimed that a police officer Nasir Arooj had gotten him implicated in a false case. He accused the police officer for receiving a bribe of Rs2.5 million from his family for his release. However, Siddiqui claimed, instead of releasing him the police officer had gotten him implicated in a false case.

Meanwhile, Siddiqui’s relatives while talking to reporters outside the court had said the accused was the president of a human rights organization while seconding that he was being falsely implicated in this case.

Moreover, nine others nominated in the FIR registered for the Karachi airport attack case including chief of the defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Mullah Fazalullah and its then spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, were declared as proclaimed offenders with Malik Mumtaz Awan, Asim Shareef, Akhtar alias Plumber, Iqbal alias Thaikedar, Abdullah Baloch and Abdul Rasheed and the anti-terrorism court had issued non-bailable warrants for their arrest. The anti-terrorism court also ordered Investigation Officer (IO) Inspector Tariq Qayyum to initiate proceeding against the absconders under Sections 87 and 88 of the Criminal Procedure Code by publicising their pictures and confiscating their properties. 

Qayyum had informed the court that due requirements were fulfilled by publication of the proclaimed offenders’ pictures in newspapers and taking necessary measures for confiscation of their movable and immovable properties. On the night following the attack on the Karachi airport, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility as revenge for the killing of former TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud a year earlier in a US drone strike.  Later, TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah and spokesman Shahidullah were also killed in drone attacks carried out in Afghanistan.