ATC defers indictment in Kasur scandal

LAHORE
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday deferred indictment of 20 accused involved in the Kasur child scandal after they said that the Joint Investigation Team had not recorded their statements.
Earlier, the police produced all 20 accused before ATC-IV Judge Chaudhry Muhammad Ilyas in strict security. However, the accused through an application submitted that the Joint Investigation Team had not recorded their statements.
Six accused including Tanzeel ur Rehman, Ateeq ur Rehman, Saleem Akhtar, Muhammad Yahya and Waseem through another application submitted that the police had registered cases against them under Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) for threats.
They requested the court to exclude ATA sections from the cases and their cases should be transferred to sessions courts. At this, the court adjourned the further hearing till November 19 and sought arguments from parties on applications. The accused were expected to be indicted today as the prosecution had already submitted majority of challans (Charge-Sheet) against the accused wherein they were held guilty. Ganda Singh Wala/Kasur police had registered a total of 31 cases in connection with the Kasur child abuse scandal against 20 accused. Twenty-five cases were registered under Sections of 506, 293, 387, 386 and 377 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Sections of Anti-Terrorism Act whereas six other cases were registered under Sections of Criminal Procedure Code alone.