Number of suspects traced nears 3,300

Legal proceedings in May 9 cases reviewed

MIANWALI/ LAHORE:

The authorities have claimed to have identified about 3,280 people suspected of being involved in the May 9 riots.

According to officials, the process of identifying the suspects is continuing and those identified so far have been traced in Lahore and other cities.

Police officials said the suspects had not been nominated in 52 cases, in which unidentified miscreants had been traced.

The officials said that out of the 3,280 suspects, 1,767 had been arrested after identification, including 536 from Lahore, 404 from Gujranwala, 234 from Rawalpindi and 493 from Sargodha.

Earlier, a database of 1,163 suspects had been prepared.

Legal proceedings against those involved in the incidents of May 9 were reviewed in a meeting, where Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi said all resources should be used to bring the “fugitive criminals” to justice.

Meanwhile, officials said another suspect in the Jinnah House attack had been identified as Arzam Junaid, a resident of Lahore and activist of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

In another development, a new case of vandalising Safe Cities Authority property was registered against PTI workers. The miscreants were accused of destroying a camera box, speakers and other equipment at Girja Chowk worth hundreds of thousands of rupees.

The case was registered against unknown suspects in the Sarwar Road police station on the complaint of a Safe Cities Authority official.

Meanwhile, 18 PTI workers released on bail in Mianwali were arrested for the third time by the police.

Heavy police contingents were present outside the jail to re-arrest the workers who had been detained after the May 9 incidents.

Relatives of the arrested men were waiting for them outside the jail to take them home after the approval of their bail but the police arrested them again. As many as 53 suspects had been produced in an anti-terrorism court in connection with FIRs registered in Mianwali.

Judge Nadeem Tahir Syed of the Sargodha Special Anti-Terrorism Court had discharged all the suspects.

When the released people had left the premises, the police arrested 18 of them from different places.

They were facing a first information report registered last month over protesting at the WAPDA office and Vatakhel Chowk but Area Magistrate Jameel Bhatti approved the bail of all of them.

But as soon as they went out of the jail, the police arrested all of them without divulging the reason for detaining them.

The police have decided not to pursue action against several suspects arrested in connection with the Jinnah House attack and other incidents after their identification parade. The police declared 25 suspects innocent after an identification parade and one without the need for the process. Their names have been removed from the cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2023.