Staff Reporter
A judicial magistrate on Tuesday allowed transfer of Mureed Abbas murder case to an Anti-Terrorism Court.
During the hearing of the case, lawyer for Atif Zaman, the suspect in the double murder case, opposed the inclusion of terrorism clauses in the case against his client.
He argued that Mureed Abbas, Khizar Hayat and Atif Zaman had a financial dispute. He said in the light of court judgement terrorism clauses cannot be added to a case of personal nature. The lawyer said he would challenge the session court’s decision to transfer the case to ATC.
Counsel for Mureed Abbas’s widow Zara Abbas submitted his written arguments and told the court that the accused had targeted both media persons and business community and his act falls under the terrorism act.
The Investigation Officer of the case said Atif Zaman murdered Mureed and Khizar in order not to pay back Rs910 million. He said who would summon the courage to demand their money from the accused after seeing the double murder.
He said through murder Atif sent the message that anybody who demands the money would meet the same fate. After hearing the arguments from lawyers and the statement from the IO, the court approved the police’s application seeking transfer of the case to the Anti-Terrorism Court.
