Bomb hoax: Court seeks call data from police investigator

FIA assistant director raised false alarm to prevent Qureshi from entering his office.

LAHORE: A court in Lahore has sought from a police investigator the call data of a senior officer of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) who was allegedly involved in spreading a bomb hoax in the agency’s office in Lahore.

FIA Assistant Director Khwaja Hamadur Rehman had allegedly raised a false alarm, apparently to prevent FIA’s Additional Director General Zafar Qureshi from entering his office.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Aurangzeb directed the police investigation officer, Zahiruddin Babar, to produce the call data by September 7. He was also directed to complete the investigation and report to the court on the next date of hearing.

The investigation officer informed the court that by spreading a bomb hoax, the accused wanted to thwart a meeting that Qureshi was scheduled to chair in the building.

Advocates Muhammad Asif Chattha and Muhammad Naeem Malik, who appeared on behalf of the accused, said that their client had been made a scapegoat in the case.  They also requested the court to direct the investigation officer to produce the call data for that day, which would prove that their client had sent the information he received on cell phone about a bomb threat.

Is it a crime for someone to receive a phone call regarding a bomb threat and inform his superiors about the threat, they asked.

Judge Aurangzeb directed the police investigator to complete his investigation and produce the FIA official’s call data on the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th,  2011.