SHC irked by investigation officer's absence in Safoora attack case

KARACHI: Sindh High Court on Monday expressed displeasure over the absence of police investigation officer in a case pertaining to Safoora Goth massacre that took place in 2015, ARY News reported.

During the hearing of the case regarding whether the co-accused of the heinous terrorist attack be retried in the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) or not, the prosecutor apprised the court that the Investigation Officer, DSP Khalid Khan was on leave.

At least 43 people were killed and 13 others wounded, in May 2015, when armed men opened fire inside a bus carrying members of the Ismaili community near Safoora Chowk in Karachi.

Sindh Police”s then Inspector General Ghulam Haider Jamali had said that 60 people were on board the bus when six gunmen entered and executed 43 passengers.

It is pertinent to mention here that the court had served a show cause notice on the Investigation Officer for his continuous absence, but he once again did not appear before the court.

The court had restricted the police from arresting the co-accused Naeem Sajid and Sultan Qammar in Safoora Goth massacre case. The suspect were facing charges of providing weapons to the killers of Safoora Goth massacre.

It also upheld its earlier directive to not retry them in the ATC until the case is decided.

Earlier a military court had awarded death sentences to five suspects involved in Safoora Goth massacre.

According to ISPR, the five convicts, Tahir Hussain Minhas s/o Khadim Hussain Minhas, Saad Aziz s/o Abdul Aziz Sheikh, Asad ur Rehman s/o Atique ur Rehman, Hafiz Nasir s/o Afzal Ahmed and Muhammad Azhar Ishrat S/O Ishrat Rasheed Ahmed, were tried in a military court. They were active members of Al-Qaeda.

They had confessed to committing the high-profile crimes, before trial court, of shooting dead Sabeen Mahmud, Safoora Chowrangi carnage, bomb blast near Saleh mosque and attacking law enforcement agencies.