Security concerns: Sufi Muhammad hearings transferred to Peshawar

Defunct TNSM chief faces nine terrorism-related cases.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court has ordered for the case hearing against chief of Tehreek-e-Nifaz Sharita-e-Muhammadi  (TNSM) to be transferred from an Anti-Terrorism Camp Court in Timergarah of Dir district to Peshawar High Court (PHC), due to security concerns.

Around nine cases registered under terrorism charges in the years 1994-95 against TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad, are taking place inside the central prison of Peshawar due to security concerns. However with the latest transfer, the number has reached to a total of 10.

A letter issued by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Home and Tribal Affairs Department directed the office of Advocate General K-P to file an application before the PHC seeking for the transfer of Sufi’s case to the provincial capital.

The application submitted by the AG office gave details of the TNSM chief being a patient of chronic urinary disease making his travel from Peshawar to Timergarah and subsequent return to Peshawar after the court proceedings an extremely difficult process.

Additional Advocate General Lal Jan Khattak informed PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan that transferring Sufi before the Anti-Terrorists Camp court at Timergarah for his court hearing is extremely risky due to Sufi’s medical condition, because of which an escort vehicle has to be stopped frequently during its journey.

Khattak requested the court to order for the transfer of the case to Peshawar and also for the TNSM chief to be tried in the central prison so that all risks involved in his relocation may be avoided.

“The respondent is confined in Peshawar, therefore, it will be convenient to take proceedings of the case in Peshawar, hence this petition is allowed,” CJ Khan ordered, adding that the case is transferred from the diary of the ATC camp court, Timergarah to ATC Peshawar.

According to an FIR registered at Timergarah police station on September 25, 2001, the TNSM chief had been charged under sections 120-A and 16 MPO when he along with Maulana Ghaffur Ahmad addressed a public gathering during which they made derogatory statements against the former president Pervez Musharraf.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2012.