March 18, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 14, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, March 17: An anti-terrorism court on Monday rejected the application of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) to the case of Aqeel Ahmad Abdul Qudoos, the alleged harbourer of Al Qaeda activist Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, and transferred the case to a lower court for trail.

The judge of anti-terrorism court No.2, Safdar Hussain Malik, rejected the application of Section 7 of the ATA, 2002, on the accused after the defence counsel, Sardar Ishaq, satisfied the court during arguments before presenting his bail application.

The court observed that other charges against the accused would remain. The court returned the bail plea to the defence counsel and observed that the case did not fall in its jurisdiction and it should be tried in the proper court.

The defence counsel had challenged the jurisdiction of the court  and contended that the accused had never struck any terror or created a sense of fear and insecurity among the people or any section of the society. Nor was there any evidence against the accused, which could link him with any sectarian or terrorist activities, he said.

He contended that the accused had not used bombs, dynamites, explosives, inflammable substances or lethal weapons which could have caused deaths, injuries, damage or destruction to any person or place.

He maintained that although the police had claimed seizing weapons and grenades from the house of the accused during their raid, there was no evidence to show that he was involved in terrorism. The history of the accused was clean of any such crimes, he said.

The defence counsel submitted the bail application in the court of the civil judge and judicial magistrate, Iqbal Guraya, where it would be heard on Wednesday.

On March 1, the police and other agencies had arrested the accused allegedly with Khalid Shaikh and his two Somali aides from his Westridge residence.