Court seeks witnesses in DHA double murder case

KARACHI: A sessions court has ordered police to bring witnesses on April 10 for recording their testimonies in the DHA double murder case.

The additional district and sessions judge of District South court IV, who is conducting the trial inside the central prison, had framed charges at the previous hearing on Atif Zaman for murdering anchorperson Mureed Abbas and Khizar Hayat. The judge ordered the investigation officer to submit a schedule to produce prosecution witnesses before the court and ensure their presence throughout the trial. According to the prosecution, Atif in aide of his absconding brother, Adil Zaman, killed the two people 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 the non-payment of their shares in profit - which apparently instigated him to commit the murders, it added. He called Abbas and Hayat at two places in DHA on the pretext of returning some of the owed amount, the charge sheet read. He first shot Hayat at a signal and later went to kill Abbas in an office.

Atif denied the charges and opted to contest the case after which the judge ordered starting the trial from March 6, and directed the investigation officer to bring witnesses to the court at the next hearing.

Meanwhile, the court has bifurcated the case for Adil, who has been absconding since the Supreme Court revoked his bail in September 2020. He will be charged separately after he is arrested again. Atif was taken into custody soon after the incident when police raided his apartment but he shot himself in the torso. He was then shifted to a private hospital for treatment. Adil was nabbed in October 2019 from a northern part of the country. However, a sessions court granted him bail in June 2020 following which the wife of slain anchorperson, Zara Abbas, moved the appellate forum against it.