An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Karachi on Friday has sentenced two members of Muttahida Qaomi Movement (MQM) to death for the murder of a another political party’s woman leader.
According to details received by TBP, the ATC handed death sentences to Mohammad Rashid alias Master and Zahid Abbas Zaidi of MQM-London for the murder of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Zahra Shahid.
MQM-London, a faction within MQM, is attributed to the supporters of MQM’s founder Altaf Hussain, who resides in London.
Due to lack of evidence, the court acquitted two other accused Irfan and Kaleem.
The PTI leader was killed outside her house in the Defence Housing Authority on 18 May 2013, the eve of re-polling on Karachi’s National Assembly constituency, NA-250.
According to Rangers’ prosecutor, both the convicts were associates of the London-based group of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-L) and had confessed to their involvement in the murder.
According to the prosecution, they had killed Zahra Shahid to scare the PTI leadership in Karachi.
The police claimed to have arrested Rashid in an illicit weapons case on Sept 25, 2013. The prosecution claimed that during interrogations he had confessed to his involvement in the case of the PTI leader. Later, the police arrested Zahid Abbas Zaidi on Oct 2, 2013.