Illegal detention: Sindh High Court issues notices on petition seeking release

Suspect has been acquitted in Oct 15, 2014 shootout case

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court issued on Tuesday notices to the home secretary and others on a petition seeking the release of a man who was exonerated by a lower court earlier this year after being taken into custody following a shootout in 2014.

The secretary and other respondents will file their comments in this regard by October 17.

A sessions court had, in March this year, acquitted the suspect, identified as Sarmad Siddiqui, in a case pertaining to a shootout with police near Saddar on October 15, 2014.

Three suspects, Siddiqui, Asif Zaheer and Nadeem alias Burger alias Mullah, said to be associated with al Qaeda and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan were charged with allegedly attacking police officers and engaging them in a shootout near Saddar on October 15, 2014.

A case was registered under sections 353 (criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 324 (attempted murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Civil Lines police station.

The crime investigation department (CID) of police claimed to have arrested the suspects on October 28, 2014. According to the CID, unlicensed weapons were seized from Asif and Nadeem. Officials claimed the three were also linked to the attack on the Karachi airport earlier the same year.

The judges were informed that the authorities had still kept Siddiqui in custody despite the fact he had been acquitted by a court, thus his detention was a violation of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. The court was pleaded to order the authorities to release him.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2016.