Sri Lankan Team Attack: Non-bailable warrants issued for three

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants of three accused, allegedly involved in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in March 2009, for not appearing before the court. The bench comprising Justice Shaikh Ahmad Farooq and Kazim Raza Shamsi directed the Capital City Police Officer to arrest Qari Muhammad Mushtaq, Imanullah and Ubaidur Rehman and produce them in court.   The court issued this order while hearing the Punjab government’s petition seeking cancellation of bail granted earlier by the different courts to the six accused involved in the attack on the Sri Lanka team. On previous hearing, the LHC had summoned the accused, but only three of them Mohsin Rashid, Javed Anwar and Abdullah, appeared. During the course of arguments, additional prosecutor general said that the six accused were identified during the identification parade and they had confessed to the crime. He pointed out that a huge quantity of weapons and suicide jackets were also recovered from them. He said that by not appearing before the trial court, the accused had hampered court proceedings. The government requested the court to cancel the bail saying that the terrorists could not be given the relief of a bail under the law. The petitioner said that relief of the bail given to the accused will send a wrong message to the world.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2011.