Five more convicts in Sarfaraz Shah murder case on Wednesday filed appeal in Sindh High Court (SHC) against their conviction by the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC). Two convicts Muhammad Tariq and Manthar Ali filed appeals through advocate Habib Ahmed while appeals of other three convicts Bahar-ur-Rehman, Liaquat Ali and Muhammad Afzal were filed by advocate Mehmood Alam Razvi.
Both the counsels challenged the judgement of ATC almost on same grounds appeals, they said the case does not come under the purview of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) as relevance to Section 6 and 7 of ATA is not established in it and therefore they challenged the jurisdiction of the ATC (trial court).
"There was no common intention, it was just an incident", the counsels argued. They also pointed out contradictions in statements of prosecution witnesses and prayed the SHC to set aside the life term awarded to them by the ATC. One of the convicts Muhammad Afsar Khan had already filed his appeal in SHC against his conviction on Tuesday.
It may be mentioned here that Anti-Terrorism Court headed by Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso had awarded death sentence to accused Shahid Zafar, constable of Sindh Rangers and life term to six other co- accused in the case. The case was registered at Boat Basin Police on June 9, 2011 under Section 302 and 43 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against six Rangers personnel and a civilian Muhammad Afsar for killing Sarfaraz Shah.