An interesting situation occurred during the hearing of the cases against former Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza as eight witnesses including a policeman failed to identify Zulfiqar Mirza and 39 others, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday.

Two cases have been registered against Mirza in Badin. As many as eight witnesses refused to identify Zulfiqar Mirza and 39 others during a case hearing at Anti- Terrorism Court Karachi (ATC). They argued it had been five years since the cases were registered against the accused persons and now they have forgotten about the faces.

Even, seven of the witnesses alleged that the police forcefully took their statements.

When the prosecutor in the court asked the witnesses whether they can identify Zulfiqar Mirza, they nodded in negative and said, “No, we don't know him.”

“On the incident day, we were doing our work in Badin and all of a sudden a rampage began,” the witnesses recorded their statement in the court. However, the prosecutor insisted that the accused attacked the police in the 2015 incident.

When the prosecutor asked the witnesses why they recorded their statements earlier, they replied they were forced by the police to record such statements. “There was no firing in the bazaar and we did not even hear any firing shots,” the witnesses said. 

Policeman Tariq, a witness, even said, “It’s been five years, and I did not remember the accused.”

The case hearing has been adjourned till February 15.