Going overboard? Court tells CTD not to harass citizens

One says the CTD has been harassing him, the other says he was kept in illegal confinement

LAHORE: Lahore High Court passed similar orders on Monday on two petitions requesting the court to stop the Counter Terrorism Department from harassing the petitioners.

JUI (F) Majlis-i-Shoora member Saqib Farooqi told the court that the Jaranwala CTD had been conducting raids at his house to arrest him on bogus charges of inciting sectarian violence. He said the police had put him on the Fourth Schedule thrice but Lahore High Court had declared the action illegal.

He said the police had raided his house again to put him on the Fourth Schedule. He said he was a political worker and had nothing to do with sectarian violence. He asked the court to direct the CTD not to harass him and to refrain from conducting raids at his house.

The court told the CTD not to harass Farooqi and to produce evidence, if any, against him before the court at the next hearing on August 24.

On another petition, a division bench of the LHC asked the CTD to present evidence against the petitioner who had been taken into custody for alleged involvement in a hate-speech campaign.    Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu and Justice Erum Sajjad Gull were hearing Hasan Zaheer Sheikh’s petition. Sheikh said the CTD had implicated him in a false case and he had no ties to any hate campaign. He said the CTD had kept him in illegal confinement from May 28 and had put his detention on record on June 14. He asked the court to release him on bail and order action against the CTD officials responsible for illegally detaining him.

CTD inspector Tariq Mahmood said that Sheikh was involved in a hate campaign. He said during a raid, they had found 27 volumes of hate material in his possession and Rs90,000 in his pocket.

The court then told the inspector to produce the material in court on August 17.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2015.