Sedition case: Three organisers of students march granted pre-arrest bail

LAHORE: An additional district and sessions court Monday granted pre-arrest bail to three organisers of Student Solidarity March, accused of sedition and inciting people to violence.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Saifullah Sohal granted bail to Farooq Tariq, Ammar Jan and Kamil Khan on submission of surety bonds of Rs50,000 each. Meanwhile, a magisterial court sent a participant in the march, Alamgir Wazir, to jail on 14-day judicial remand after refusing police request seeking his physical remand. Alamgir is nephew of MNA Ali Wazir.

The three accused implored the court that they had been nominated in a politically motivated case. They stated that it was beyond imagination that they could commit sedition. They said they were ready to cooperate with the investigators and requested the court to grant them interim bail. The court, after hearing the accused, granted them interim bail till Aug 12. Meanwhile, Alamgir Wazir was produced in Cantt Courts before a judicial magistrate and the police asked the court to grant physical remand of the accused. The police requested 10-day physical remand of Alamgir so they could arrest other suspects with his help by identifying them in CCTV footage. It has been learnt that bails of co-accused Iqbal Lala and Muhammad Shabbir could not be filed before the court as they were out of the city. As per case details, the Civil Lines police had registered a case on sedition charges against the march organisers, including Alamgir, Ammar Ali Jan, Farooq Tariq, Iqbal Lala, father of Mashal Khan, who was lynched on Abdul Wali Khan University premises in Mardan over false blasphemy allegations, Mohammad Shabbir, and Kamil Khan, besides other 300 unidentified participants.