ATC grants seven-day remand of three cops held over jailbreak

The administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts (ATCs) accepted on Friday a request for a seven-day remand of three of the 15 cops accused of assisting two dangerous Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) terrorists in escaping from prison last month.

The three accused, who are in the custody of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), were produced before the administrative judge of the ATCs. The court was requested to extend the remand period for further interrogation after their four-day ended on Friday.

The cops whose remands were accepted are assistant prison superintendent Ayaz Salik, deputy prison superintendent Muhammad Amjad and head clerk Naveed Ahmed and they were arrested by the CTD police.

The twelve cops arrested earlier were identified as Superintendent Ghulam Murtaza Shaikh, Deputy Superintendent Faheem Anwar Memon, Assistant Superintendent Abdur Rehman Shaikh, Assistant Sub-inspector Firosh Muhammad, Nawab Ali, Atta Muhammad, Muhammad Amir, Abdul Ghafoor, Saeed Ahmed and Nadir Ali.

Gulam Murtaza Shaikh, Faheem Anwar Memon and Abdur Rehman Shaikh have moved bail applications before the ATC concerned. They are accused of assisting two LeJ terrorists in escaping from prison on June 13.

The case was initially submitted to a regular (subordinate) court that accepted the judicial remand of the 12 accused and ordered keeping them under detention. The accused were produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate (East) Khalid Rajpar by the investigation officer, who is incharge of the New Town police station.

However, later the relevant authorities (CTD police) inserted the Anti-terrorism Act’s provisions. The case is since being heard by an ATC and the bail pleas would also be entertained by the same court.