Press club attack: Seven protesters remanded into custody

KARACHI:

The anti-terrorism courts’ administrative judge remanded on Tuesday seven workers of Anjuman Talba-e-Islam into police custody for allegedly attacking the Karachi Press Club and vandalising vehicles parked there.

The suspects, identified as Abdul Qadir, Raza, Imran, Umair Khan, Zafar Iqbal, Irfan and Khawaja Raza, affiliated with Jamait Ulema Pakistan-Noorani’s student wing, were produced by the police before the administrative judge to seek their remand.

The investigating officer told the judge that the suspects, along with their absconding accomplices, turned violent during a demonstration outside the press club on March 27 during the Chehlum of Mumtaz Qadri, the police commando hanged in Rawalpindi last month after being convicted of killing Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011. The protesters tried to set ablaze a van of a news channel, damaged several motorcycles as well as beat up journalists during their assault, the officer added.

The judge sent the suspects into police custody on a three-day physical remand and sought a progress report on the next hearing. The FIR of the attack has been lodged under the Anti-Terrorism Act as well as various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Artillery Maidan police station.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th,  2016.