ATC to announce reserved verdict in Imran Farooq’s murder case

An anti-terrorism court ATC in Islamabad will announce its verdict in the case of MQM leader Imran Farooq’s murder. The politician was stabbed to death outside his house in London in 2010.

According to the details, the judgment was reserved on May 21 after the completion of the trial. As many as 29 witnesses recorded their statement in the case.

In February, a team of Scotland Yard officers arrived in Islamabad for a week to facilitate the trial taking place in both London and Pakistan after the United Kingdom and Pakistan decided to cooperate and the UK sent the entire murder case file to Pakistan for the trial of the murder conspirators.

Last year, Pakistan’s lawyer in the UK for the murder case, Toby Cadman, said Britain handed “compelling evidence” to Islamabad. The MQM leader’s wife, Shumaila Farooq, was also interviewed from London during the lengthy trial. She read out her statement on what happened on September 16, 2010, when her husband was stabbed to death outside his home in Edgware.

In her statement recorded before ATC Judge Shahrukh Arjumand, wife of Imran Farooq said that her husband went to the market to buy bread, but never returned. When she tried to find out him, she found police standing near her home. Her neighbor informed her that two youngsters shook hand with Farooq and then one of them attacked him with a knife while the other hit his head with a brick.

In 2018, the IHC had directed the ATC to conclude the much-delayed trial by October 2018. According to reports, two suspects in the case — Khalid Shamim and Syed Mohsin Ali — have recorded their confessional statements before a magistrate, saying Dr Farooq was killed because he was a “potent threat”.