K ARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday allowed the defence side to again argueits application seeking transfer of the DHA shootout case to a regular court.

Salman Abro, son of a senior superintendent of police, along with police guards of his father has been booked for allegedly killing his teenage classmate Suleman Lashari and wounding his private guard after breaking into the victim`s house on May 8 in Defence Housing Authority while the main suspect also sustained wounds and one of his five guards was killed in an exchange of fire.

On a previous hearing, the court reserved its order on an application moved by the defence counsel under Section 23 (power to transfer cases to regular courts) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 after hearing both sides.

However, when the case came up for hearing on Thursday, the defence lawyer asked the court to rehear the arguments on the transfer application since he could not properly argue on a previous hearing.

The counsel for the complainant argued that it was merely a tactic of the defence side to prolong the trial. But public prosecutor Abdul Maroof informed the court that the prosecution had no objection to the rehearing of the transfer plea since fair trial was a right of the suspects.

Judge Saleem Raza Baloch of the ATCHI allowed the request of the defence side and fixed the matter for Aug 19 to rehear arguments on the application.

When the complainant asked the court about the hearing of its pending application against the findings of an ossificationtest, which declared the prime suspect underage, and constitution of a medical board, the court said it would have to decide the transfer application first.

The complainant informed the court that he and his family were still without protection despite a court order, while police claimed that security was provided to them.

Notice issued to SHO in neurosurgeon kidnap, murder case An anti-terrorism court on Thursday issued a show-cause notice to a station house officer in a doctor`s kidnap-cummurder case over non-production of case property.

Neurosurgeon Dr Aftab Qureshi had been abducted for ransom before being killed in an exchange of fire between police and kidnappers in Hyderabad in May 2012.

The prosecution witnesses turned up before the ATC-IH to testify but their statements could not be recorded because the police had not produced case property in court, which subsequently issued a show-cause notice to the Bhittai Nagar SHO.

Meanwhile, the court reserved its order on a bail application of one of the accused persons, Irfan, after hearing arguments from both sides till Aug 23.

Dr Ashok Kumar, said to be a quack, Farooq Ahmed, Azhar Ali, Imdad Ali, Hath Khan, Abdul Aziz, Irfan and Ghulam Ali alias Ghulam Nabi have been booked in the cases.

Azhar and Imdad were among the clinical staff of the slain doctor. The cases were registered at the Brigade and Bhittai Nagar police stations.