Afaq Ahmed sent to prison in arson instigation case

A judicial magistrate on Saturday sent Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) chairman Afaq Ahmed to prison on judicial remand in a case pertaining to allegedly setting fire to a tanker in Surjani Town.

The jail authorities produced Ahmed before Judicial Magistrate (West) Nisar Ahmed Chandio in compliance with his production order issued by the court on Friday. A larger number of his supporters gathered to show solidarity with their leader and chanted slogans in his favour.

Investigating officer Sohail turned up in the court along with the case file as well as statements of witnesses and other details of the investigation conducted by him. He informed the court that he had been suspended by his superior authorities and the investigation of this case had been handed over to SIO Irfan Siyal.

Defence counsel Javed Ahmed Chattari and Hashmat Khalid contended that there was no cogent evidence to connect the MQM-H chief with the alleged offence as he had been implicated in the present case on political grounds. They requested the magistrate to either discharge him under Section 63 of the Criminal Procedure Code or remand him in judicial custody instead of police custody.

"After reviewing the relevant documents and hearing the arguments of the learned counsels, I find that there is no need for further interrogation of the accused to remand the accused to police custody, as the police records indicate that no recovery is required from him, nor is any further identification or pointation of other accused persons necessary," the magistrate said.

He further noted that Section 436 of the PPC invoked in the FIR was non-bailable and was triable by the sessions court. Therefore, the magistrate remanded Afaq Ahmed in judicial custody until March 8 with a direction to the SIO to appear in person before the court.

Afaq's bail application in the present case is scheduled for hearing before a sessions court on Monday.

On Friday, an anti-terrorism court granted post-arrest bail to the MQM-H chief in two cases pertaining to allegedly instigating people to torch heavy vehicles in the city.