Karachi, Mar 27: A Pakistani court today failed to indict suspects in the killing of 11 French Naval engineers in a suicide car bomb blast here in may as a defence lawyer did not show up, court officials said. “The charges could not be framed because one of the defence lawyers did not show up,” public prosecutor Qauyam Mazhar told a news agency. Judge Feroz Mahmood Bhatti, heading an anti-terrorism court was to indict Islamic militants, Asif Zaheer and Mohammad Bashir, in the May 8 bomb attack that also killed two Pakistanis and the suicide bomber. But no proceedings could take place today and the judge adjourned the case untill Monday, Mazhar said. Police have charged Zaheer, from the Harkat Jihad-ul Islami militant group, and Bashir, of outlawed Kashmiri militant group Harkatul Mujahedin, with murder and terrorism, punishable by death.

The court last week declared five other militants as absconders in the case and ordered seizure of their property.

Police say Zaheer and Bashir arrested, late last year, confessed to their role in the attack.

They have told interrogators they mistakenly thought their targets were Americans and regretted that the victims turned out to be French, who had been working on the Pakistan Navy's Agosta 90-B submarine project.

Bureau Report