ATC issues non-bailable warrants for arrests of TTP chief, others

The warrants have been issued in two separate cases of attacks on police personnel

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday issued non-bailable warrants for the arrests of the defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) chief and others in two separate cases of attacks on police personnel.

The TTP chief, Fazlullah, its former spokesperson, Shahidullah Shahid, and eight others have been booked for their alleged involvement in bomb attacks on the convoy of SSP Chauhdry Aslam and on a bus carrying personnel of the Special Security Unit.

SSP Aslam, often referred to as the 'iron cop of the city', was killed when a suicide bomber hit his convoy on the Lyari Expressway in January 2014. In the second case, three SSU personnel died and 19 others were wounded in a vehicle-borne blast near their bus on the National Highway in March of this year.

The TTP claimed responsibility for both the attacks in a statement, therefore its leaders and local commanders were booked for plotting the attacks. Both cases are lingering on in court, as the police have failed to arrest any culprits.

At a previous hearing, the court had asked the officers investigating the cases to submit a report in compliance with Sections 87 and 88 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which deals with the process of proclamation of the absconding suspects and attachment of their properties, after they submitted that they remained unable to trace the whereabouts of the suspects.

As per the law, the court, after taking cognisance of the report, usually declares the absconding suspects proclaimed offenders. Apart from the above mentioned cases, the TTP chief and his aides are wanted in other cases, including the attack on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport, which left at least 37 dead.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2015.