KARACHI: Out of 65, eleven cases regarding the May 12, 2007 mayhem which were closed with the approval of a relevant court have been reopened, police informed the administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts on Friday.
The police submitted a report to the judge, stating that 11 cases regarding the May 12, 2007 riots which claimed at least 50 lives in Karachi have been reopened and assigned to the Anti-terrorism Court-II for hearing.
The ATC will take up tomorrow (Saturday) these cases registered at different police stations, including Gadap, Bahadurabad, Ferozabad, and airport.
The trial court has already been seized with the hearing of four cases pertaining to the riots. Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar and other accused had been indicted by the court in these cases.
In Sept this year, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had ordered reopening the cases regarding the May 12, 2007 mayhem.
The verdict came on a plea to reopen the 65 cases which had been declared A Class (proceedings in the case stopped with the approval of the court).
The SHC chief justice (CJ) will appoint a judge to oversee the proceedings, a joint investigation team will be constituted to investigate the cases, and the provincial government will constitute a tribunal for the cases, read the verdict.
On May 12, 2007, at least 50 people were killed and over 100 wounded in attacks on rallies of different political parties and the legal fraternity, who had attempted to receive the then deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry at the Karachi airport ahead of a lawyers’ gathering.
Justice Chaudhry was forced to fly back to Islamabad after nine hours of being restricted to the airport.
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