Police station attack: ‘Too early to drop terrorism charge’

FAISALABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) has rejected an application filed by Punjab Assembly Member Rana Shoaib Idrees requesting the judge to drop charges, under Section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA), against him and nine nominated people and 50 unidentified people accused of attacking a police station last year. Khurarianwala police had registered a case against them under Section 7 of the ATA and had added Sections 225, 186, 353, 149, 148 and 440 of the Pakistan Penal Code for attacking the police station, taking law into their own hands, vandalism and injuring three policemen on July 18, 2014. The police had submitted a challan against the accused at the anti-terrorism court. Idrees told the court that police had implicated him on terrorism charges at the behest of his political opponents. He said that there was no evidence showing his involvement in the attack on the police station. However, the court rejected his plea observing that the trial was at the preliminary stage and it was too early to drop the terrorism charges.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2015.