Indictment in anchorperson murder case deferred again

A district and sessions court on Wednesday again deferred the indictment of an interned suspect, Atif Zaman, in the DHA double murder case after the defence lawyers did not show up during the hearing.

The additional district and sessions judge South has now fixed the framing of charge for February 20 at the Central Jail Karachi with a direction to all the parties to ensure their presence on the next date.

The case has been facing dramatic delays since the beginning due to which the trial has not been able to begin despite a lapse of over one-and-a-half years. According to the prosecution, Atif in aide of his absconding brother Adil Zaman, who has been declared a proclaimed offender, killed anchorperson Mureed Abbas and Khizar Hayat minutes apart in Defence Housing Authority on July 9, 2019.

Both the victims were partners in a business with Atif and were demanding their money back owing to non-payment of their shares in profit – which infuriated the accused to commit the murders, it added.

The charge sheet read that Atif called Abbas and Hayat at two different places in DHA on the pretext of returning some of the money he owed to them. He first shot Hayat at a signal and later went to kill Abbas in an office. The CCTV footage showed Adil accompanying Atif during this killing spree.

Atif was arrested soon after the incident as police raided his flat in the same neighborhood. He, however, shot himself in the torso before police could arrest him. He was rushed to hospital and survived.

On the other hand, Adil was arrested five months after the incident but was later granted bail by the trial court. The Supreme Court, however, rejected the bail but he ran away from the court and is still untraceable.

The FIRs were registered under the sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 325 (attempt to commit suicide) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 23(1)a of the Sindh Arms Act at the Darakhshan police station.