An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Pakistan on Wednesday acquitted two accused in the Sri Lanka cricket team attack case, Pakistan Observer reported.

Obaidullah and Ibrahim Khalil had been accused of providing arms and training to the terrorists involved in the attack on a visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3, 2009. Seven people had been killed and 20, including seven Sri Lankan players, injured in the attacks. The Lankan team had escaped owing to the heroics of the team’s bus driver. The doors of international cricket in Pakistan had been, till recently, closed as a result of the incident.

Representing the accused, Advocate Rana Baleegh had argued that the allegations against his clients were false and baseless. His clients should, therefore, be acquitted, he said. The court had therefore ordered acquittal of the two accused in the case. Six individuals — Qari Zubair alias Naik Mohammad, Adnan Arshad, Abdul Wahab, Javed Anwar, Ibrahim Khalil and Obaidullah — had been indicted in 2016 for the attacks. 

Qari Zubair, Adnan Arshad and Abdul Wahab were later killed in an alleged encounter with security officials. The alleged mastermind of the attack, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi chief Malik Ishaq, was also killed in a police encounter. Earlier, the case had been transferred from the ATC to military courts, from where it was transferred back to the ATC.

-Pakistan Observer
-Agencies