Ongoing investigation: ATC extends remand of arrested KDA officials

KARACHI:

An anti-terrorism court extended on Wednesday the remand of two suspects, allegedly involved in embezzlement worth millions of rupees and accused of financing crimes using money procured through the embezzlement.

The suspects, Faisal Masroor and Mujibullah Siddiqi, were produced before the ATC-III for the third time since their implication in the case earlier this June.

Both the suspects were apprehended in April by the Rangers and were subsequently taken into 90-day preventive detention on allegations of their involvement in target killings, extortion, kidnapping and other terrorist acts. Two days after they were detained for questioning, four officials - Najamuz Zaman, Abdul Qawi Khan, Anwar Farooqi and Muhammad Ali - of the now defunct Karachi Development Authority were also arrested on the same charges.

Masroor and Siddiqi, were booked in two separate cases when their three month detention period in the paramilitary force's custody expired. The cases against them were registered at the Arambagh police station, as it was alleged that the suspects, during interrogation, confessed to committing land grabbing within the remits of that police station.

On Wednesday, the investigators probing into the alleged land embezzlement pleaded the trial court to extend the physical remand of the suspect, contending that the whereabouts of the absconding suspects had yet to be traced.

The ATC-III judge, Saleem Raza Baloch, approving the plea, allowed the investigation officer to keep the suspects in custody for five more days and directed him to bring a progress report at the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2015.