Four people acquitted over lack of evidence in Safoora bus attack case
Police failed to present any evidence against them
Police failed to present any evidence against them
Photo: AFP
An anti-terrorism court has acquitted four people in Safoora bus attack case because the police failed to present sufficient evidence against them.
Zahid Motiwala, Sultan Qamar Siddiqui, Hussain Umar, and Sajjad Naeem were acquitted on Tuesday.
The police failed to present any evidence against the suspects, said the court. The interim challan submitted by the police in March 2018 is weak and full of mistakes, the court ruled. The challan shows that the suspects were out on bail.
Related: SHC acquits ‘financier’ in Safoora Bus attack
The court noted that the high court had returned the passports and bail bonds to the suspects. This shows that there wasn’t any proof of the suspects’ involvement in the case.
The police argued that Zahid Motiwala supplied the weapons for the attack. The court said that Motiwala sells weapons to licence holders. The dealer is not responsible if people misuse the weapons, the court said.
In May 2016, a military court had awarded capital punishment in the case to Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin, Tahir Hussain Minhas alias Sain, Asadur Rehman alias Malik, Mohammad Azhar Ishrat alias Majid and Nasir on May 12 last year.
Forty-six members of the Ismaili community, including women and children, were killed when gunmen attacked their bus near Safoora Goth in Karachi in 2015. According to the police, six people are still absconding in the case.
