ATC acquits man accused of possessing explosive device

An anti-terrorism court has acquitted an accused, said to be affiliated with the outlawed Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army (SRA), in a case pertaining to possession of an explosive device.

Sheeraz Ali was charged with possessing an improvised explosive device (IED) within the jurisdiction of the Mochko police station in August 2022.

The ATC-XVI judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the jail, pronounced his order after recording evidence and final arguments from both the defence and prosecution sides. He ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against the accused, exonerating him from the charges.

The judge, however, kept the case of absconding accused Mohammad Amjad Shah on dormant file till his arrest or surrender.

According to the charge sheet, on August 6, 2022, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) received a tip-off that two men affiliated with the banned SRA had arrived in the city from Balochistan's Hub area with a plastic bag containing an explosive device that they intended to detonate at a crowded place in Muharram.

Acting on the tip-off, a CTD team reached Hub River Road and arrested one of the suspects while the other managed to flee taking advantage of darkness, read the charge sheet.

The defence counsel, Hyder Farooq Jatoi, contended that his client was picked up by law enforcement agencies from Hub and later booked in the present case. He said the accused was innocent and had falsely been implicated in the case, requesting the judge to acquit him for lack of evidence.

The FIR was lodged by the CTD under the sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act read with the Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.