ISLAMABAD
\nThe Supreme Court of Pakistan has acquitted two brothers, Abdul Aziz Khan and Mangla Khan, who had been imprisoned for 20 years in connection with the deadly 2005 bombing outside the PIDC House in Karachi, ruling that the prosecution failed to present reliable evidence.
\nThe Court set aside the convictions upheld by both the trial court and the High Court.
\nA petition challenging the acquittal of Abdul Hameed Bugti was also dismissed. According to the written judgment, a vehicle-borne bomb exploded outside Karachi\u2019s PIDC House on November 15, 2005, killing five people and injuring more than twenty others.
\nThe blast caused extensive damage to nearby banks, a KFC outlet, and surrounding buildings.
\nThe Court noted that the prosecution\u2019s two main witnesses\u2014Traffic Constable Muhammad Ashraf and taxi driver Zaheer Shah\u2014failed to establish their presence at the crime scene, and their testimonies were riddled with contradictions. The judgment further stated that the combined rather than separate identification parade, the use of inappropriate dummies, and the fact that the accused were already in police custody rendered the identification process \u201cunreliable.\u201d
\nThe alleged judicial confessions of the accused were also deemed inadmissible due to evidence of coercion, prolonged police custody, delay, and lack of specific details regarding the alleged crime.
\nThe Supreme Court observed that complete CCTV footage from cameras installed outside the PIDC House existed, yet the investigating officer produced only a limited portion showing events after the blast.
\nThe Court held that the prosecution failed to present the \u201cbest available evidence,\u201d which could have even supported the innocence of the accused, thereby raising suspicion that crucial material was deliberately withheld.
\nThe judgment criticized the investigative shortcomings, stating that even in a major terrorism case, police failed to meet basic investigative standards.
\nIt lamented that two young men\u2014aged only 27 and 37 at the time of their arrest\u2014were forced to spend two decades behind bars on the basis of weak and deficient evidence. The Supreme Court accordingly overturned the convictions of Abdul Aziz Khan and Mangla Khan and ordered their honourable acquittal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD The Supreme Court of Pakistan has acquitted two brothers, Abdul Aziz Khan and Mangla Khan, who had been imprisoned for 20 years in connection with the deadly 2005 bombing outside the PIDC House in Karachi, ruling that the prosecution failed to present reliable evidence. The Court set aside the convictions upheld by both the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-514576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n