ATC acquitted two accused in Sri Lanka cricket team attack case

On Wednesday,  an anti-terrorist court (ATC) acquitted two accused in the Sri Lanka cricket team attack case.

The two accused of providing arms and training to the terrorists, Obaidullah and Ibrahim Khalil, involved in the attack on a visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3, 2009.

Seven people had been killed in these attacks,  and 20, including seven Sri Lankan players, injured. The Lankan team had escaped thanks to the heroics of the team’s bus driver.

This incident resulted in a black page in the history of the reputation of Pakistan in the eyes of the world. And today we are facing the darkness of the incident in a way that Pakistanis are banned from visiting various countries as well as visit of foreigners in Pakistan has also been reduced to a large scale.

This incident also resulted in the closed door of the international cricket team in Pakistan till yet, which is a massive attack on the economy of Pakistan.

Advocate Rana Baleegh while representing the accused,  had argued that the allegations against his clients were false and baseless. He requested for the acquittal of his clients.

Therefore, the court had ordered acquittal of the two accused in the case.

Six individuals had been indicted in 2016 for the attacks. Names of the individuals are:

Qari Zubair alias Naik Mohammad, Adnan Arshad, Abdul Wahab, Javed Anwar, Ibrahim Khalil, and Obaidullah.

Qari Zubair, Adnan Arshad, and Abdul Wahab were later murdered in an encounter with security officials. In a police encounter, the alleged mastermind of the attack, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi chief Malik Ishaq, was also killed.

The case had been transferred earlier from the ATC to military courts, from where it was transferred to the ATC again.