An anti-terrorism court on Saturday remanded to prison 22 workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf detained for allegedly staging violent protest over the arrest of their party chief Imran Khan.
The Shah Faisal Colony police produced the 22 suspects before the ATC-II judge and sought their 10-day physical remand in police custody for investigation.
The investigating officer stated that the suspects were involved in rioting and damaging public property, adding that their custody was needed for interrogation and arrest of their accomplices.
On the other hand, advocate Zahoor Mahsud, who represented the suspects, opposed the police remand plea, stating that the detained men were not terrorists, but political workers.
He lamented that the PTI workers and sympathisers were rounded up during protests three days back and the police instead of producing them before the court within the required time kept them in illegal detention. He requested the judge to remand them to prison.
The court, turning down the police’s plea for the grant of physical remand, remanded the suspects in judicial custody with a direction to the investigation officer to submit an investigation report within two weeks’ time.
An FIR has been registered under sections of 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 153 (inciting to riot), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
PTI lawmakers Faheem Khan, Akram Cheema, Raja Azhar, and other local party leaders had also been nominated in the case.
Separately, various courts in Karachi’s West district granted bail to a total of 54 suspects arrested in rioting cases, according to advocate Abdul Jaleel Khan Marwat. They were told to furnish a surety of Rs5,000 each to secure the bail.
The 54 workers were arrested in cases lodged at the Mominabad, Pak Colony, Orangi Town, Iqbal Market and Surjani Town police
stations.
A judicial magistrate in Malir discharged nine workers of the PTI under Section 63 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in a rioting case lodged by the Sachal Colony police.
Source link: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1070102-atc-remands-22-pti-workers-to-prison-in-rioting-cases