KBA office-bearer among five lawyers granted bail by ATC in police attack case

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday granted bail to five lawyers in a case pertaining to thrashing and confinement of a police official at the Mominabad police station.

Over a dozen lawyers, including Karachi Bar Association (KBA) Acting General Secretary Imran Aziz, along with their 70 to 80 unnamed colleagues have been booked under rioting, criminal intimidation, wrongful confinement and other charges by the Mominabad police.

On Monday, the investigation officer, Muhammad Rafique Tanoli, produced Advocate Muhammad Nadeem Jutt, who had been picked up from his residence, before the administrative judge of the ATCs at the judicial complex inside the central prison and requested that he be sent to jail on judicial custody.

The IO claimed that the held lawyer along with his colleagues had beaten up Assistant Sub-Inspector Faiz Ahmed and forcibly put him in the lock-up, adding that they obstructed a public servant in discharge of his official duty and also shared videos of the act on social media.

Jutt through his counsel moved an application before the court seeking post-arrest bail. Four other lawyers — Imran Aziz, Tahir Mehmood, Waqar Ahmed and Muzaffar Ali — filed an application for grant of pre-arrest bail.

After hearing the arguments, the ATC-VI judge granted bail to the lawyers against a surety of Rs50,000 each and adjourned the case until May 10 for confirmation of the bail or otherwise. The ATC directed the IO to record statement of the applicants at the judicial complex and appear along with police papers on the next date of hearing.

Defence lawyers Abid Zaman, Osama Ali Gujjar, Mehboob Aziz and Waqar Ahmed contended that the applicants had been framed in a fake case with mala fide intention and ulterior motives. They added that the case was lodged to counter an earlier FIR against the police officials for maltreating lawyers at the police station.

"The police officials have brutally maltreated the lawyers at the police station where CCTV cameras were also installed," the counsel said, adding that the lawyers were subjected to such behaviour because of their protest against the canals issue.

An FIR has been lodged under the sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 324 (attempted murder), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 337-A (Shajjah), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 506-B (criminal intimidation), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with the Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.