Four lawyers sent to jail in IHC attack case

ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Thursday sent four lawyers, involved in Islamabad High Court (IHC) attack, to Adiala Jail on seven days judicial remand and also sought arguments on their post arrest bails.

The police produced the four arrested lawyers including Zafar Ali Warraich, Naveed Malik, Sheikh Shoaib and Nazia Bibi before the ATC Judge Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan and requested the court to grant their fourteen days judicial remand. The court rejected the request and granted only seven-day remand of the accused.

Meanwhile, the court served the notices on respondents on post arrest bail petitions of the accused and sought arguments on Friday. The bail petitions were filed through the lawyers, including Syed Muhammad Ali Bukhari, Chaudhry Junaid Akhter, Shajar Abbas Hamdani, Qazi Hafeez and others.

The petitions claimed that the First Information Report (FIR), registered against the lawyers, was based on allegations. The accused had not committed any crime and they were respectable members of the bar. It was claimed further that case was prepared against the lawyers on political grounds and even no investigation of the incident was done. The accused had neither any criminal record nor any thing was recovered from them. They prayed the court to grant bail of the arrested lawyers till the final decision in the case, adding that their bail wouldn't affect the case proceeding.