March 9, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 5, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

RAWALPINDI, March 8: An anti-terrorists court on Saturday extended the physical remand of Ahmad Qudoos by three days.

Mr Qudoos, a Pakistani, was captured along with the suspected mastermind of Sept 11 terrorist attack on the US, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the latter’s Somali aide, during a joint pre-dawn swoop by the US and Pakistani intelligence agencies from his Westridge residence on March 1.

In their remand plea, the police had contended that they needed five more days to squeeze more information from the accused regarding the Al Qaeda network. The court only granted three days.

Mr Qudoos was produced before the judge of the anti- terrorists court No. 2, Safdar Hussain Malik, at 10.15am amid tight security.

On March 4, the accused was produced in the same court at 5.30pm after the court staff had left. The charge-sheet was then presented to the judge at his house, who remanded him into police custody for four days, said the sources.

The Westridge police had registered an FIR against the accused and the latter’s father, Dr Abdul Qudoos, under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 2001, section 353 and 216 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), sub-section 13 of Section 20 of the Arms Ordinance, 1965, and Section 4 and 5 of the Explosive Act for harbouring terrorists and possessing weapons and grenades in their house.