Bari Imam Shrine attack 2005: Police await suspects on judicial remand in another case

The two accused are currently with Nilore police for carrying explosives.

RAWALPINDI:

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday refused to grant physical remand of two suspects in Bari Imam suicide-attack case. The two men, who were wanted for involvement in the 2005 attack on the shrine, were recently arrested by the Nilore police in another case of carrying explosives on August 12.

Special Judge ATC-I Malik Muhammad Akram Awan directed the SHO Secretariat Police to first send the two cousins Hafiz Abdul Maroof, 27, and Mohammad Nadeem Gilgiti, 31, to jail on judicial remand in the second case (carrying explosives).

The ATC judge said that Secretariat police can then seek the physical custody of the two men after they are sent on a judicial remand in the other case.

Following the orders of the ATC the police took the two men to Adiala Jail and are likely to seek their physical custody by next week to question them about their alleged in the attack on Bari Imam Shrine in May 2005.

According to the police the two men, said to be active members of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), were arrested from Thanda Pani and police seized two hand grenades from their custody.

As many as 20 people were killed and 100 were injured on May 27, 2005 when a suicide-bomber attacked a gathering at Bari Imam Shrine during the annual festival.

The police said that the two men brought the suicide-bomber from Northern Areas and provided him boarding at the house of another member of the SSP in Rawalpindi before sending the attacker to the shrine.

The police added the two men were also involved in arranging the explosives and other necessary material to prepare the suicide-vest for the unidentified bomber.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2011.