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| India-Pakistan | |
| Prosecutor, IG called by court after Manawan acquittal | |
| 2010-06-21 | |
An anti-terror court on Saturday acquitted Hijratullah, an accused in the Manawan attack case, after giving him the benefit of doubt as the prosecution failed to prove charges against him.
Police had arrested Hijratullah from the spot while he was allegedly trying to blow up a helicopter parked behind the centre. A grenade, a wireless set and a passport showing him to be an Afghan national were recovered from him. Later he was identified as Hijratullah. After that police had registered two cases against him. Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawja Muhammad Sharif took suo motu notice of the acquittal late in the night, asking the Inspector General, Prosecution Secretary and the Prosecutor General to appear before the court on June 22. "It is an alarming state of affairs that (a number of) accused have been acquitted by trial courts due to defective investigation and lack of sufficient evidence and as such failure of the prosecution to prove cases. "The judiciary, being an important limb of the state, is under a constitutional obligation to see state functionaries perform their duties according to law of the land. The acquittals have mainly been because of failure of the prosecution," an LHC press release quoted the LHC chief justice as saying.. The court has summoned all officials concerned have been asked to appear before the court and explain their position. The Advocate General would assist the court on June 22. On March 31, the terrorists had attacked three symbols of national security -- Police Training School, provincial headquarters of the Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) and Elite (police) Training Centres at Badian Road -- and held the city hostage for the entire day. The law enforcement agencies produced Hijratullah before the court of Masood Arshad amid tight security and cordoned off the premises. The court after hearing the arguments of defence counsel (advocate) Ali Zia Bajwa and recording statements of witnesses exonerated Hijratullah from the charges, as prosecution was failed to prove charges against him. As many as 22 witnesses recorded their statements during the proceedings. Last month, Hijratullah denied the allegations, saying he had nothing to do with the terror act as he was a garbage collector. He claimed that he had nothing to do with the attack and just happened to there to collect garbage from the school premises, when security agencies picked him up. He also denied links with Baitullah Mehsud or any other terror network in the region. It may be mentioned that the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief late Baitullah, who claimed the responsibility of attack on April 1, 2009, had claimed responsibility for carrying out attack on the Police Training Centre but denied that the "man arrested from the spot belonged to his outfit." The ATC had already awarded 10 years sentence to Hijrat for keeping hand grenades and arms. Hijratullah has also been acquitted in another case, involving a blast at a shrine (Pir Makki) in Lahore. | |
| Posted by:Fred |