Pakistan

Bhara Kahu attack: Alleged accomplices sent on judicial remand

To be produced before ATC on September 2.

Obaid Abbasi August 18, 2013

The five suspects are charged with facilitating the would-be suicide bomber who failed to detonate his vest and died. PHOTO: PPI

ISLAMABAD:

An anti terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday sent five suspects in the botched Bhara Kahu attack on judicial remand for two weeks.

On Saturday, the police brought the five alleged accomplices of the failed suicide bomber Zakaullah to the ATC amid tight security, even barring journalists from the court room. The suspects include Hidayatullah, 28, Muhammad Saddam, 19, Muhammad Wali, 22, Mahwish Amjad, 18, and Y*, a 14-year-old boy. The police requested ATC Judge Atiqur Rehman to send them to jail as the investigation against them is complete and there was no need for further physical remand. Instead, the court sent them on judicial remand and directed the police to produce them before the court on September 2. The suspects had been arrested by the Islamabad Police on August 11 from a house on Simly Dam Road where police believe the Eid-day attack on Masjid Ali Ibne Abi Talib was planned.

The five suspects are charged with facilitating the would-be suicide bomber who failed to detonate his vest and died in an exchange of fire with the mosque’s guard, Amin Hussain, who also lost his life.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar had earlier revealed that six of the suspected militants, including Hidayatullah, Saddam and Yasin, were from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The bomber’s father, two brothers and three others were also arrested from their village in Bhowana in district Chiniot in Punjab. Law enforcement authorities had also arrested a man from Faisalabad and another from Parachinar in Kurram Agency based on information they gathered from the house on Simly Dam Road.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2013.