March 20, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 16, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, March 19: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday rejected the bail application of Aqeel Ahmad Abdul Qudoos, who allegedly harboured Al Qaeda activist Khalid Shaikh Mohammad.

The magistrate, Mohammad Iqbal Guraya, rejected the bail application after hearing the arguments of both the prosecution and defence council.

The case started in the court after an anti-terrorism court on Monday ruled out the application of Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 2002, to the case by observing that it should be tried in a proper lower court.

The assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Westridge police station, Farhat, argued on behalf of the prosecution and contended that police officials, including DSPs Sadar, Maqsood Khan and Rana Shahid Pervez and Inspector Raja Saqlain, conducted a pre-dawn raid after receiving information that a sectarian terrorist, Rashid, was hiding inside Ahmad’s house.

During the raid the accused, Ahmad, came out of his house and started scuffling with ASI, Mohammad Hanif, tore his uniform and pulled out a 30-bore pistol in order to open fire at the raiding party. However, the police overpowered him, he said.

He pleaded before the court not to grant bail to the accused who had attacked the police party, possessed illegal weapons and explosives and harboured one of the top operatives of the terrorists network — Al Qaeda — and his Somali aide. He said that according to the report of the explosives expert, all the three recovered grenades were in workable conditions.

However, the defence counsel, Sardar Ishaq Khan, Fawad Hamdani and Qausain Faisal, blasted the prosecution charges against their client and termed the accused innocent. They described the case as “baseless” and “fabricated.”

Referring to the reports of the print and electronic media, the defence counsel observed that there were contradictions in the public and police records.