Anis Advocate granted bail in terror facilitation cases

An anti-terrorism court on Saturday granted interim bail to Pak Sarzameen Party leader Anis Advocate in cases pertaining to charges of facilitating the training of Muttahida Qaumi Movement militants with Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing.

The ATCs administrative judge approved the bail-before- arrest applications moved by Anis in four such cases, ordering him to submit a surety of Rs100,000 in each and appear in the court at the next hearing on June 29 for the confirmation of bail.

The PSP leader was implicated in the case by the Counter Terrorism Department after he failed to provide satisfactory answers to the investigators during a questioning session, according to Sindh CTD chief Deputy Inspector of General Omar Shahid Hamid.

Anis in his application contended that he was innocent and falsely implicated in the case. He expressed his will to contest the charges and requested the court to grant him bail since he feared apprehension at the hands of the CTD.

The judge approved the request initially while issuing a notice to the prosecution to submit their comments on the maintainability of the bail at the next hearing. Both the sides were directed to ensure their presence for arguments.

The CTD had grilled Anis as well as Dr Farooq Sattar after two suspects allegedly belonging to the MQM-London and trained by RAW disclosed their names as their facilitators, said a statement from the agency.

Sattar was dropped off from the investigation, but Anis was formally made part of it. Both of them had been associated with the MQM in the past and enjoyed key posts in the party.

The CTD had arrested three suspects, identified as Naeem Khan, Imran Ahmed and Aleemuddin, in Landhi in a raid conducted along with a federal intelligence agency, the name of which was not disclosed. According to it, the suspects were planning to carry out an assassination in the city on the directives of the MQM-London setup and they had been in the past given urban warfare training by the Indian spy agency.