Court acquits 9 accused of suicide attacks

An Anti-Terror Court in Rawalpindi on Thursday has acquitted nine men accused of planning two deadly attacks on security targets, including one which killed Surgeon General Lt Gen Mushtaq Baig.
A suicide bomber killed Lt Gen Mushtaq Baig with seven others in February 2008. He is the most senior military official to be killed since 2001. Just weeks earlier, several employees of the intelligence agency were killed in a suicide attack on a bus.
But the judge said there was not enough evidence. The men pleaded not guilty. The 2008 suicide bombings left 16 people dead and wounded dozens more.
Due to lack of evidence, no charges can be proved against the accused, judge Malik Akram Awan said in the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
But the court said the men would be held in preventative custody at home because they are still under investigation. The public prosecutor, Bilal Ahmed, told they produced several witnesses and lots of evidence.
Ahmed said that those acquitted included the alleged ringleader, Dr Abdul Razzak, an employee at a local government hospital, who was charged in both cases.