KARACHI: Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of Anti-Terrorism Court-V (ATC-V) declared Monday Qari Mohammad Zafar, one of the accused in the US consulate suicide bomb blast case, an absconder and directed for copies of the witnesses to be provided to the lawyers of the accused. Accused Anwarul Haq and Usman Ghani were arrested five months after the incident that killed four people, including US diplomat David Foy, and injured 48 in March this year on the eve of US President George W BushÂ’s visit to Pakistan.In the charge sheet, the police have shown accused Anwarul Haq and Usman Ghani in custody, identified the suicide bomber as Mohammad Tahir and Mohammad Zafar as the accused still at large. Declaring Mohammad Zafar as an absconder, the court directed the investigation officer to arrest him and present him before the court at the next hearing on September 25.
The suicide bomber had on March 2 rammed his explosives-laden car into a diplomatic vehicle of the US Consulate just in front of its back entrance, killing Foy and three security personnel. According to the charge sheet, the investigation officer of the case, Inspector Mohammad Tariq, received a tip-off during the investigation that Mohammad Tahir (son of Raja Afzal), a resident of Future Colony, Landhi, had been missing since the day of the suicide attack.
When the IO interviewed Raja Afzal, he said that his son had fought in Afghanistan against American forces and had also been held for some time in Shabargan Jail. He said Mohammad Tahir had left home on March 2 early in the morning and when he did not return, the family thought that he had gone to Afghanistan again. In June, an invalid man had come to meet him and said that Mohammad Tahir was in Afghanistan, Raja Afzal told the police. In July, TahirÂ’s brother Idrees, a student at Binori seminary learnt through the same person that Tahir had died in Afghanistan.
According to the IO, however, when Raja Afzal showed him the photograph of Mohammad Tahir, his faced bore a great resemblance with the suicide attackerÂ’s. The IO submitted in the charge sheet that he then took samples of the suicide attacker and Raja Afzal and Idrees and sent them for DNA testing which later proved that the suicide attacker was indeed Mohammad Tahir. Later, the police arrested Anwarul Haq, who used to visit TahirÂ’s family after his disappearance, and on his indication arrested the other accused Usman Ghani. According to the charge sheet, both the accused confessed that they along with absconder Mohammad Zafar had planned and executed the suicide attack and brought the explosives-laden car from Waziristan.