Post confession: Court sends suspected terrorist to jail

ATC rejects post-arrest bail applications of nine, including three cops, accused of kidnapping trader.

PESHAWAR:

A judicial magistrate sent a suspected terrorist to Central Prison Peshawar after he confessed in court to planting a bomb outside a police check post in Saifan area in the jurisdiction of Badhaber police station.

Police officials produced the accused, Shoaib, before the court after the expiry of his 10-day physical remand. The police told the court the physical remand of the accused had expired and now he wanted to record a statement before the court regarding the incident.

The accused told the court that on April 20, he along with another accomplice, had plotted to destroy a police check post with explosives weighing eight kilogrammes. A police party reached the site after which his accomplice fled but he was arrested.

The police said the accused belongs to Khyber Agency and has links with a militant organisation operating in the area which also trained him to carry out the operation.

As police had completed their investigation, the court recorded the accused’s statement of confession and ordered that he be sent to Peshawar jail.

ATC rejects kidnappers’ bail plea

In a separate case, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) rejected the post-arrest bail application of nine accused, including police personnel, arrested for allegedly kidnapping a trader and demanding ransom for his release.

The prosecution counsel told the court that Khazana police conducted a raid in Char Pareza area on April 10 and arrested nine people for kidnapping Haji Akhtar Shah, a local trader who was abducted from Charsadda Road, Khazana.

The accused police officials were identified as constable Sheryar of the IGP’s squad, Shah Faisal of jail security squad and counter-terrorism department constable Adbul Manan. The other accused included Ismail, Sadarat Shah, Farhad, Abdul Qahar, Khan Taj and Ihsanullah. They are currently incarcerated at Central Prison Peshawar.

The court was informed that the accused were demanding Rs25 million for the trader’s release and kept him in captivity for 14 days.

ATC Judge Syed Asghar Ali Shah rejected the bail application of the accused. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2014.