May 12 carnage: Seven suspects remanded into jail custody

Court also remanded two suspects into police custody for advocate's murder

KARACHI: Police informed the administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts (ATC) on Friday that they have released six suspects in six cases pertaining to the May 12, 2007 mayhem for want of evidence, while seven others were remanded to prison.

The police had arrested Noorul Hasan, Syed Arsalan Ali, Waqas Kaimkhani, Faisal Wahab, Ghulam Murtaza, Syed Talha, Zeeshan Bashir, Azhar Qureshi and Mohammad Adeel on August 16 and Hanif alias Gada, Imran alias Angrez, Salman Rizvi and Nasir last week for their alleged involvement in six cases pertaining to rioting lodged at Airport police station during the May 12, 2007 riots. Most of the detained suspects were said to be political workers.

After the end of their physical remand, the police reproduced the seven suspects and submitted that they have released Arsalan, Waqas, Ghulam Murtaza, Talha, Faisal, Zeeshan and Adeel under Section 497 (2) of Pakistan Penal Code for want of evidence.

The administrative judge sent the suspects to prison on judicial remand and directed the police to submit investigation reports. The court has yet to pass any order on the police report regarding the release of the six suspects.

Two suspects remanded

The same court also remanded two suspects into police custody till August 28 in a case relating to the murder of Advocate Waheed Ahmed Qureshi.

Kashif aka Tinda and Junaid Iqbal alias Baldag, said to be political activists, have been booked for allegedly killing Qureshi in November 2011 near Tariq Road.

Police alleged that they were also involved in other cases, including the Tahir Plaza arson attack and murder of Mohajir Qaumi Movement advocate Sohial Anjam.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2016.