ATC acquits four suspects in Karachi airport attack case after six years

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday acquitted four suspects in a case against a terror attack on Karachi airport six years back underlining that the prosecution was not able to prove facilitation charges against the accused, ARY NEWS reported.

The court acquitted four suspects including APML Sindh Convener Sarmad Siddiqui and directed the authorities to release them if they are not booked in any other cases. The others who were acquitted included Nadeem aka Burger, Asif Zaheer and Abdul Rashid.

The court further issued lifetime arrest warrants for eight absconding accused including Mullah Fazlullah, who died in 2018, spokesman of his outlawed organization and others.

It is pertinent to mention here that the police have claimed that the four accused had played their part as facilitators in the attack and provided the attackers with logistics, weapons and funds.

The attack at the Karachi airport on 08 June 2014 had claimed the lives of 27 people including airport employees and members of the Airport Security Force (ASF) besides the 10 attackers who tried to make their way inside the premises.

It is pertinent to mention here that in March 2015, the ATC judge, Justice Bashir Ahmed Khoso while conducting a hearing of the Karachi airport attack case, indicted three suspects Sarmad Siddiqui, Asif Zaheer and Nadeem alias Burger.

All of the three suspects denied charges framed against them at that time.