The parade continues: 58 more MQM men remanded by ATC

Rangers given custody of 32 men for 90 days, police given custody of remaining suspects.

KARACHI:

Law enforcers presented 58 more men, detained during the raid at the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) headquarters, before an anti-terrorism court on Friday. They were divided into two groups; one with cases already registered against them, the other about whom the Rangers claimed to have credible information of their involvement in criminal activities.

The Rangers, exercising their special powers, informed the ATC-II about the 90-day preventive detention of the 32 suspects. The police, on the other hand, sought custody of the remaining 26 suspects. The latter were sent on physical remand for two weeks.

The court bespoke the same war-like scenario of a day earlier. Black-masked commandos took position on the premises. Suspects were brought in open-top paramilitary trucks and private buses. They seemed sleep-deprived or fatigued. Some wore slippers, others sneakers covered with mud. Yet others simply limped barefoot.

They marched in a beeline, blindfolded, hands on the back of the other in tandem, to enter the court. Some reeked of urine, their clothes somehow telling the same story.

The group of 32 suspects was presented first. They were made to stand before the judge for a brief moment. The judge asked their name and they moved ahead. The first phase did not take long. The second phase, in which the remaining 26 were presented, however, lasted several hours.

All the suspects were implicated in cases of possessing illicit weapons and explosives. Each was inquired about his offence. Each pleaded innocent. Each, except the condemned, Faisal Mehmood alias Mota, who said he was never convicted. Mehmood was awarded the death sentence in absentia by a Kandhkot ATC in March 2014 for killing journalist Wali Babar.  Another suspect claimed he was a gardener at the MQM’s office. The judge, in return, asked him about a fumigation process which he failed to explain.

Ubaid alias K2 complained about pain in his kidneys, allegedly due to torture by the paramilitary personnel. The judge ordered the investigation officer to take him for a medical examination. The judge also advised the suspect to ‘drink a dozen glasses of water daily to avoid such pain.’

Later, case properties, including weapons and explosives, allegedly seized from the suspects, were presented before the judge. It was revealed that most of the weapons were of prohibited bore. The prosecution said most of the weapons seemed to have been stolen from NATO containers.

The defence counsel objected to this revelation, saying that the United States Embassy had denied that the NATO or ISAF ever used the Karachi port for transportation of weapons. A defending lawyer said that a civilian could never had procured these weapons and bombs and alleged that their clients were falsely been implicated in the cases. The judge, in response, remarked that there should be no talk of the US. “Our country in itself is engaged in the war against terrorism.”

The suspects grilled by the Rangers were identified as Zafar Khan, Habib ur Rehman, Mumtaz Ali, Masood Siddiqi, Syed Zamin Shah, Gulberg Khan, Shahid Bashir, Arshad Rehman, Amir Ahmed, Syed Shahid Ahmed, Saifullah, Nadir Hussain, Syed Sjaid Ali, Irfan Sheikh, Kazim Mehmood, Pitras Masih, Nafees Ahmed, Muhammad Asif, Ibrahim, Arshad Qureshi, Zakir Ali, Wajid Noor, Nadeem Ahmed Khan, Kaleem Ahmed, Rameesh Malik, Irfanullah, Shah Zaib Wali, Saddam Hussain, Muhamamd Irfan, Asim Ahmed, Shehzad Ansari, Syed Asghar Ali Abidi.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2015.