Shackled students: ATC transfers case to district courts

The men implicated were accused of causing injuries, wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and common intention.

KARACHI:

The Anti-Terrorism Court I transferred the case of the alleged shackling of at least 45 students at a seminary in Sohrab Goth to the District Courts (West).

The men implicated in the case, including Qari Mohammad Usman from the seminary, were accused of causing injuries, wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and common intention.

On June 1, the Special Public Prosecutor Abdul Maroof had formed an opinion that the sections of the law that the men were charged under do not fall within the ATC’s domain and – ‘for the sake of justice’ – the prosecutor would not object to the case being shifted to a regular court.

The ATC I transferred the case, which was filed under the FIR 273/2011, on Thursday. Police raided the seminary and recovered the students in a widely-publicised move last December. Several of the students were handed over to Edhi officials who then transferred them to the custody of their families.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2012.