اردو
  • May 12 carnage: Karachi Mayor indicted in one more case

    Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar File photo Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar

    A special anti-terrorism court on Saturday indicted Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar in a case related to violence on May 12, 2007.

    The court heard four more cases related to the carnage, in which other accused were also indicted.

    All accused, including Akhtar, denied the charges.

    The court adjourned the hearing until October 27 and also ordered witnesses to appear before it.

    Akhtar, in an informal media talk after the hearing outside the court, said those responsible for the May 12 violence should be identified.

    Akhtar and others have also been indicted in another case and nine suspects have been declared absconders till yet by the court.

    A committee had also been constituted by the Sindh High Court to investigate into the violence and is headed by AIG Karachi Amir Sheikh.

    On May 12, a major portion of Karachi’s main artery, Shahra-e-Faisal, turned into a battlefield when rival political groups clashed with each other soon after the arrival of the then chief justice of Pakistan. Due to the clash, the former chief justice did not move ahead from the lounge of the airport and returned to Islamabad without addressing a lawyers’ convention at Sindh High Court.

    The thoroughfare was to be used by the procession of the then chief justice, but was made completely inaccessible to commuters as all the intersections were blocked by large containers and trucks.

    More than 50 people were killed and over 100 injured the the attacks on rallies by different political parties and lawyers who had attempted to receive the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi ahead of a lawyers’ gathering.