A worker of the defunct Sipah i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), being tried in a bomb blast case, denied on Monday the charges against him and said he was innocent.
| "Nope. Wudn't me. Nope. Musta been somebody else." |
Judge Feroz Mehmood Bhatti fixed May 14 for hearing final arguments from the prosecution and the defence after the statement of Sabir Waseem. The SSP worker was charged with launching an anti-tank rocket (BM-107) that had pierced through the wall of the Commerce College on the Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed Road on Nov 23, 2001. The defendant said that he had been implicated in the case by the police and that all the witnesses were policemen.
| "Who y'gonna believe, judge? A buncha coppers or me?" |
According to prosecution, the SSP worker along with his absconding accomplice, Asif Ramzi, reached the college to fire rocket to target Americans staying at the second and third floor of Sheraton Hotel. The two men, carrying the rocket and its locally-made launcher in a kit -bag, reached near the hotel on a motorbike around 9:30 p.m. The two positioned the launcher on the pushcart of a junk vendor. It was alleged that while accused Waseem was still trying to position the launcher to the hotel, the rocket blew off due to a short-circuit, hitting the outer wall of the Commerce College. It landed in a classroom making an eight-inch hole in the wall.
"Yow! What was that?"
"A 107 mm Chinese-made antitank rocket. Now go back to sleep."
"Hokay." |
According to bomb disposal squad, the device was an anti-tank rocket, weighing 25 kilograms with 10 to 12 kgs of explosive material. Waseem was arrested red-handed during a shootout with the police following an attack on a prisoners' van, which was carrying, among others, Dilawar Hussain, a worker of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan.
| Dilawar's not to be confused with the late Dildar, who got the high jump. Or maybe it is the same guy, since they often don't stay quite dead... |
During the interrogation, the police found the lower body of Waseem severely burnt. He disclosed before the police that he was himself injured while firing the rocket.
"Cheeze, Waseem! Your legs look like a coupla burnt matches!"
"Yar... Red to black, green to white... Or is it the other way around? Damn! I can never remember!" |
Two people, including a constable, Shakil, were killed when the prisoners' van, also carrying some sectarian workers, was ambushed on February 28, this year near Bohra Pir within the limits of Nabi Bux police. Ramzi and two others, Ata ur Rahman and Naeem Bukhari, were declared absconders in this case. |