Four declared proclaimed offenders in Abidi murder case

An anti-terrorism court on Saturday declared four suspects proclaimed offenders in the Ali Raza Abidi murder case, issuing perpetual warrants of arrest against them.

The ATC-XI judge directed the police to arrest Mustafa, Faizan, Hasnain and Bilal, and present them in court. The court also ordered forfeiture of properties, if any.

Abidi, former MNA of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, was gunned down outside his residence in Defence Housing Authority by motorcyclists in an apparent targeted attack. The Counter Terrorism Department had arrested four suspects, Abdul Haseeb, Muhammad Ghazali, Muhammad Farooq and Abu Bakr, in connection with the murder.

At the time of the arrest, CTD official SSP Naveed Ahmed Khawaja had said that at least eight people were involved in the murder and the mastermind of it was still at large. He suspected that a foreign spy agency was behind the killing and it through its agents paid Rs800,000 to the hitmen to carry out the attack.

SSP Khawaja had told the media that the CTD first arrested Farooq and on the basis of the information provided by him, three more suspects, Abdul Haseeb, Ghazali and Abu Bakr, were held. They disclosed the names of Mustafa, Faizan, Hasnain and Bilal, who are yet to be arrested.

At a previous hearing, the court had rejected bail applications moved by Farooq, Ghazali and Abu Bakar. They contended that they were innocent and falsely implicated in the case. They pleaded with the court to grant them post-arrest bail, and maintained that they were ready to face the charges.

The prosecutor opposed the bail pleas and argued that the investigators had sufficient incriminating evidence against the suspects. He said that the suspects should not be set free on bail as it could affect the proceedings in case they ran away.

After listening to the arguments from both the sides, the judge had rejected the bail applications and observed that the prosecution had possessed evidence against them and prima facie they were involved in the murder.

The FIR of the incident was registered under sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code 1860 read with section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 on the complaint of the deceased’s father, Akhlaq Abidi, at the Gizri police station.