An eyewitness in the trial for the killing of US diplomat David Foy identified on Thursday an al Qaeda suspect before an anti-terrorism court (ATC) as the man who came with the alleged suicide bomber in a car right before the bomb blast. Osman Ghani and Anwarul Haq are charged with preparing a plot for a car bombing near the US consulate in Karachi on March 2, 2006 in which four persons, including US diplomat David Foy and three Pakistanis, were killed and 48 others were injured. According to the prosecution, the alleged suicide attacker, who was later identified as Mohammad Tahir, rammed a car packed with explosives into a vehicle carrying the US diplomat as soon as it left the consulateÂ’s gate. Prosecution witness Ali Zaman, who identified Anwarul Haq as the man who came with the alleged suicide bomber, was examined before the court. The witness said he was standing outside the canteen on the morning of March 2 when two persons came in a white Toyota car and stopped near the Naval surgical hospital.
He said one person stepped out of the vehicle and went to the parking side of the Marriot hotel while the other man parked the vehicle at the parking lot of the hospital. The witness said that he saw the man getting back into the vehicle and starting it after receiving a signal from the person standing near the hotel parking lot. The witness said that after a short while he heard the sound of the blast outside the canteen and later saw that the blast had occurred in the same white vehicle. The witness also identified the alleged suicide bomber Tahir by his photograph before a judicial magistrate during an identification parade. The ATC headed by Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch, who is conducting the trial inside jail, fixed December 2, 2006 for the cross-examination of the witness on the request of the defendant counsels Mushtaq Ahmed and Mohammad Farooq. Special Public Prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa represented the state. The court has already declared absconding co-accused Mohammad Zafar alias Qari Zafar, the main mastermind of the case, as a proclaimed offender.