Court voices anger over witnesses’ no-show in Edhi Centre case

A court expressed its displeasure on Wednesday over the failure of prosecution witnesses to appear and record their statements in the Edhi Centre robbery case. 

The court directed the investigation officer (IO) to make sure the prosecution witnesses showed up at the next hearing on July 5. 

The key suspect in the robbery case, Jam Ajmal, is in detention, and eight co-accused -- Jamshed, Imran, Saleem, Akram, Babar, Saima Bano, Jam Akhtar  and Umair Shah – are on bail. 

In the October 2014 incident, the suspects robbed the Edhi Centre in the Mithadar area of foreign currency, gold and other valuables worth around Rs100 million.

According to the prosecution, the robbers broke into the head office of the Edhi Centre, held all the staffers and the late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi hostage, and got away with the looted cash and goods.

Then Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah took notice of the incident and ordered the police to arrest the culprits. 

A first information report was registered against unknown persons at Mithadar Police Station on the complaint of Faisal Edhi, son of the late Abdul Sattar Edhi. Later, the suspects were arrested. 

Faisal Edhi once claimed that he had been receiving threats of dire consequences from some men, who put pressure on him to take the case back. However, he said he was determined to bring the culprits to justice.