An anti -terrorism court in Karachi acquitted two workers of the Muttahida Quami (MQM) movement on Tuesday, who face participation positions in the 1997 murder case of the former managing director of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (Kesc) Shahid Hamid.
The two defendants, the alias Qazi Qazi Mohammad Asad, and Mehboob Ghufran aka Athar, along with their alleged accomplices, had been accused of killing the then managing director of Kesc, its driver and a guard in the neighborhood of Dha de Karachi on July 5, 1997.
An ATC had already sentenced Saulat Mirza to death in 1999 in this case and was executed in the Machh prison in Baluchistan on May 12, 2015. A case of triple murder was recorded at the Darakhshan police station for the complaint of the deceased’s widow, Shahnaz Hamid.
On February 3, 2016, the Rangers collected Minhaj Qazi and placed it under preventive detention of 90 days for investigation into their alleged participation in cases of terrorism. Later, he was delivered to the Police and the investigation officer formally arrested him in the case of murder of Shahid Hamid.
During the procedures held in the Karachi prison today, the court acquitted the two men for lack of evidence and ordered their release, if they are not nominated in any case pending.
The lawyer’s defense lawyer Mushtaq Ahmed told the court that Qazi has no connection with the case. He said that according to the first case information report, the plaintiff had only seen Saurat Mirza out of the car. However, he said the plaintiff changed his position after Minhaj was arrested.
In 2016, the widow and her son Omar de Shahid Hamid had identified Minhaj as one of the four success during an identification parade held before a judicial magistrate.
Mirza had been in the death corridor for almost 17 years before being executed in the Machh prison.
In a video transmitted before his death, Mirza had thrown serious accusations about the MQM and his main leadership, claiming that he received direct orders from the head of MQM Altaf Hussain by phone in the residence of the leader of MQM Babar Ghauri to kill the head of Kesc.
