ISLAMABAD, FEB 01 (DNA) – Supreme Court of Pakistan has rejected the verdict of Sindh High Court and ordered arrest of prime suspects Shahrukh Jatoi, Sajjad Talpur and Siraj Talpur immediately.

Three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar announced the verdict. Justice Maqbool Baqir and Justice Saeed Khosa were in the bench.

After top court’s verdict, police arrested all three suspects from premises of the court.

According to verdict, the case will now be heard in Anti-Terrorist court.

On December 26 2017, a group of civil society activists  approached the Supreme Court (SC) against the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) ruling in the Shahzeb Khan murder case.

The SHC set aside the death penalty for Shahrukh Jatoi and others convicted in the Shahzeb Khan murder case.

Civil society activists Muhammad Jibran Nasir, Jamshed Raza Mahmood, Afiya Shehrbano Zia, Naeem Sadiq, Nazim Fida Hussain Haji, Karamat Ali, Zulfiqar Shah, Aquila Ismail, Fahim Zaman Khan, and Naziha Syed Ali filed a petition in the SC Karachi registry, challenging the SHC’s November 28 ruling that stated that the murder case does not fall within the ambit of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

In a press release issued by the activists, they say that they “have been deeply affected and aggrieved by judgment of the Honorable Sindh High Court of 28.11.2017 whereby terror charges were removed against Shahrukh Jatoi and three others in the case of killing of youth Shahzeb Khan , an incident which had horrified and affected all of us”.

“Not only has the Honourable High Court set a poor precedent by overturning decision of a bench of the same size in the same case on the same issue but has also failed to consider various judgments of the Supreme Court which have well established that it is not only the reason for murdering someone but also the design, manner and circumstances in which the murder was done which determines terrorism.”

According to the petition, the civil society members have the legal standing to file the petition for leave to appeal as they are citizens of Karachi and reside in the same locality – Defence Housing Authority – where the murder took place. The petition says that “the unfortunate and gruesome murder of the deceased person resulted in striking terror and created fear, panic, sensation, helplessness and insecurity amongst the people residing in the Defence and Clifton vicinity and the public in general in Karachi and Pakistan”.