Bomb hoax: FIA officer’s bail plea dismissed

Rehman is accused of faking bomb threat to impede NICL investigation.

LAHORE:

An additional district and sessions judge on Wednesday dismissed the bail plea of a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) assistant director accused of a bomb hoax.

Judge Chaudhry Aurangzeb said that there appeared to be sufficient evidence connecting Khawaja Hamadur Rehman with the offence, and the petitioner had failed to establish malice on the part of the police or complainant.

Rehman is accused of involvement in a bomb hoax at the FIA office when Additional Director General Zafar Qureshi returned to work on August 13, allegedly to hinder Qureshi’s investigation of the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam.

Rehman’s lawyer argued that all his client did was to report a bomb threat made to the office, which had been the target of suicide bombers before.

His client had done his duty as security officer to protect the people who worked at the building, he said

The prosecutor told the court that Rehman had actually called Qureshi the night before the bomb threat was called in to warn him not to come to the office, which indicated that he knew beforehand of the hoax and was thus involved.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2011.