October 04, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 21, 1428

RAWALPINDI, Oct 3: Police claim to have arrested some members of a banned religious organisation from a village in Rawalpindi but interestingly seven of the eight men had allegedly been picked up by secret agencies about two-and-a-half-months ago.

Even a writ petition was pending before the high court for their recovery.

Rawalpindi police on Sunday claimed in an FIR to have arrested eight men from a house located at a far-off Rajar village in the precincts of Chauntra police station in an early morning raid.

Police stated to have recovered a lap top along with some hard disks and two 30-bore pistols with 26 live bullets from the custody of Salimullah Salfi, Mohammad Sheraz, Hassan Majeed, Abu Bakar, Zahid Mehmood, Mohammad Hasnain, Ijaz Hussain and Mohammad Arsalan.

Police have charged them with terrorism and criminal activities under the umbrella of banned religious outfits, inciting people for criminal activities such as suicide attacks and possession of illegal weapons. These men are presently confined in Adiala jail for identification parade.

On the other hand Misbah Saleem, wife of Saleemullah Salfi, moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on July 30 through Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui advocate against the abduction of seven men from her house in Paghwari Satellite Town by several men in civvies who came in four vehicles on the night of July 11.

She said majority of the arrested persons — Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Zahid, Ejaz Hussain, Arsalan, Mohammad Sheraz and Abu Bakar — were her guests attending a dinner party at the house.

The petitioner said when she approached the SHO of the New Town police station to find out the whereabouts of the missing persons he expressed his ignorance about the case and said as the matter was related to secret agencies, he could do nothing.—A Reporter