Court acquits alleged suicide bombers

ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court judge on Friday acquitted three people accused of planning suicide attacks in the country due to a lack of evidence. According to case details, law enforcement agencies arrested Ghulam Mustafa, Farrukh Usman and Aamir Khan on August 12, 2004, from Waris Khan and Pirwadhi, and recovered weapons and other explosives from their possession.

Police accused them of hatching plans to carry out terrorist activities in major Pakistani cities on August 14, 2004. The defence counsel told the court that the accused had been kept in illegal detention by the police since their arrest and the Waris Khan and Westrage police only registered cases against them five months after their arrests.

The defence counsel said that investigating officers had failed to produce any evidence that proved the accused had links with a banned religious organisation. Federal ministers Faisal Saleh Hayat, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed and Ijaz-ul-Haq had held a press conference after the arrests of the accused, claiming that law enforcement agencies had foiled an attempt to carry out major terrorist attack in the country on the Independence Day. The minister had also claimed that the accused were planning to target Military General Headquarters and Lal Havali. Manzoor Ahmed Mirza, the Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism court judge, acquitted the three accused in the case. staff report

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