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Three accused handed down life term in Imran Farooq murder case

Three accused handed down life term in Imran Farooq murder case
June 18, 2020
ISLAMABAD (92 News) – An anti-terrorism court handed down the life term to three accused in the Imran Farooq murder case on Thursday. The court pronounced the reserved verdict. The court also fined all the accused Rs one million each to be paid to the relatives of the victim. On May 21, the court had reserved the verdict. The main accused Khalid Shamim, Mohsin Ali Syed and Moazzam Ali were arrested in the case. However, they backtracked from their confessional statements. Imran Farooq was a senior leader of the MQM who was stabbed to death outside his house in London in 2010. The defence counsel stated that the prosecution does not have any evidence to link MQM founder Altaf Hussain to the murder. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had charged Mohsin and Kashif with Dr Farooq’s murder in 2016. Both of them were members of the MQM’s student wing. The FIA had said that accused are Pakistanis, murder was also planned in Pakistan and air tickets were also purchased from the country. The FIA asked the court to sentence the accused according to the law. It further stated that all accused were associated with the MQM and there is concrete evidence against founder of the party, asking court to give orders of property confiscation of Altaf Hussain. On this, court said that it has already ordered confiscation of Altaf’s property. Imran Farooq was a British-Pakistani politician who was best known for his association with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). He had been living in London since 1999 until his murder in September 2010. In her statement, Dr Farooq’s widow Shumaila had said that she did not see anyone killing her husband, but neighbours told her that two men attacked him with a knife and brick. She had recorded her statement through a video link in February this year.