| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Court resumes Akmal Waheed brothers trial |
| 2004-12-12 |
| Judge Anti Terrorism Court-II Feroz Mehmood Bhatti on Saturday resumed the hearing of case against Dr Akmal Waheed and his younger brother Dr Arshad Waheed on charges of harboring activists of an Al Qaeda linked organization Jundullah. The court ruled out the objection of defence counsel M Ilyas Khan that trial could not go ahead as long as the doctor brothers were continued to be detained under section 11-EEE of the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA).The court, after ruling out the objection of the defence, recorded the statement of prosecution witness Mati-ur-Rehman, the owner of a rent-a-car company, Orient. The witness in his examination-in-chief stated that he had on May 26, 2004 rented out the car to Shahzad Bajwa and Israr Ahmed (both the police claimed activists of Jundulla) on personal guarantee of Mohammad Afzal Farooqi, reporter of a local daily. The witness deposed that they did not return the car and later he knew that it was found parked in the house of the two doctor brothers. However, during cross-examination by the defence, the witness admitted that in his statement before the police he had stated that he did not remember the date of delivery of the car and further that he did not produce any documents when he was examined by the police. Both Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed were first shown arrested by the police on June 17, on charges of coordinating attacks on rangers patrolling van in April and terrorist attack on former corps commander of Karachi Ahmed Saleem Hayat on June 10. The police dropped these charges against them and they were on July 2 shown arrested in a fresh FIR registered at Gulsha-e-Iqbal police station. The police accused them of harboring activists of Jundullah, providing them medical assistance and facilitating their training in Wana, South Wazirstan. The two brothers moved bail applications before the trial court which was rejected in November. Later they moved the bail please in the Sindh High Court and a division bench comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi ordered them to be released on bail on furnishing surety of Rs0.5 million each. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 the witness...rented out the car to (the suspects)on personal guarantee of Mohammad Afzal Farooqi, reporter of a local daily. Is Farooqi a common Pak name? Perv iced one Amjad Hussain Farooqi in September and he was high on their list of top terrorists... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2004-12-12 2:00:37 AM |