ATC sentences 2 ACLC personnel to death in Intizar Ahmed murder case

• Other convicts in the case, including Inspector Tariq Raheem, sentenced to life imprisonment.
• ATC acquits suspect inspector Ghulam Abbas Raza due to the lack of evidence.
• 19-year-old Intizar Ahmed was killed after some policemen opened fire on his car in January 2018.

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi on Monday sentenced two policemen — Bilal Rasheed and Mohammad Daniyal — to death in the Intizar murder case.

Six other convicts in the case, including Inspector Tariq Raheem, have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

The ATC also imposed a fine of Rs200,000 on the five accused arrested earlier in a case pertaining to a teenager’s murder in a fake encounter by the Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) personnel.

However, suspect inspector Ghulam Abbas Raza was acquitted due to the lack of evidence.

What had happened?

Nineteen-year-old Intizar Ahmed was killed after some policemen opened fire on his car at Khayaban-e-Ittehad in Karachi's Defence Housing Authority on the night of January 13, 2018. Nine policemen belonging to the ACLC – Tariq Mehmood, Tariq Raheem, Shahid Usman, Bilal Rasheed, Ghulam Abbas Ali, Azhar Ahsan, Ghulam Abbas Raza, Fawad Khan, and Mohammad Daniyal – were charged with the murder, The News had reported.

In August 2021, accused Fawad Khan's attorney Advocate Abid Zaman submitted his arguments in defence of his client before the ATC-VII judge who was conducting the trial at the judicial complex inside the central prison.

The jail authorities had produced all the accused from prison in the court, except Ali, who appeared on bail. The lawyers from the complainant, prosecution and defence sides as well as the investigation officer were also present.

The judge, after recording the arguments by Zaman, had sought consent from all the parties in the case to pronounce the verdict — to which they all agreed. Police had initially claimed that Intizar was killed by some unidentified assailants, however, after the CCTV footage of the incident surfaced, they admitted that the ACLC was involved in it.

Then ACLC senior superintendent of police, Muquddus Haider, had remarked that the ACLC personnel had signalled Intizar to stop but after he did not stop his car, they opened fire on the vehicle, which killed the youngster. The FIR was registered under sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the PPC.