July 12, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 26, 1428

RAWALPINDI, July 11: The Special Judge of an anti-terrorism court, Mr Sakhi Mohammad Kahot, on Wednesday remanded the wife and two daughters of Maulana Abdul Aziz in police custody for seven days in the case of murder of a Rangers man on July 3 during a clash between security forces and militants holed up in Lal Masjid.

The wife of Maulana Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric of Lal Masjid, Majida Aziz (better known as Umme Hassan), his two daughters, Asma Dua, 30, and Tayyaba Dua, 17, and four other men arrested in connection with cases related to the Lal Masjid militancy were produced before the judge by the Islamabad police on Wednesday for their physical remand.

Hashmat Habib, the lawyer for the three ladies, charged with murder and plotting terrorist attacks, contested the police demand for physical remand and said the women could not be given in police custody. One of his clients, Tayyaba Dua, was already on judicial remand and could not be sent on physical remand.

However, police obtained a seven-day physical remand and were ordered by the judge to keep them in the women police station. Both Umme Hassan and her elder daughter were arrested from Jamia Hafsa on Tuesday during the operation while the younger daughter was arrested with her father on July 4.

A bail application of Tayyaba in the Chinese kidnapping case is pending with the court which will take it up on July 16.

The other four men, Advocate Wajeehullah (an associate of Advocate Hashmat Habib), Mohammad, Sohail and Waqar, all arrested in the Chinese abduction case, were remanded in police custody for three days. The judge asked police to produce them on July 14.

There was a stir in the court when police produced Wajeehullah in handcuffs, leading to a strong protest by some lawyers present there.

The judge ordered police to remove the handcuffs and directed them to complete their investigation about the lawyer in three days.

The lawyer had been arrested on Tuesday from his house. He is the Imam of a mosque situated on Saidpur Road in Rawalpindi.