RAWALPINDI, Aug 26: An anti-terrorism court here on Tuesday remanded three suspected terrorists in the physical custody of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for seven days.

In another case, the court sent two men charged with attacking the aircraft of former President Pervez Musharraf last year to the Adiala Jail on judicial remand. ATC-II Judge Sakhi Mohammad Kahot gave Khurram Ishtiaq, a resident of Rawalpindi, Ghulam Mustafa of Kahuta and Shamim Alam of South Waziristan, in FIA custody after the investigator told the court that information about their affiliation with any terrorist group and their targets was to be obtained from the accused.

The three accused were arrested by the FIA on August 24 with some high and sophisticated explosives. The FIA had first obtained their two days’ remand from a duty magistrate.

In the aircraft attack case, the judge sent Mohammad Mazharul Haq alias Ahmed alias Jani, a resident of Islamabad, and Niaz Ahmed alias Dr Saqib of Rawalpindi to Adiala Jail on judicial remand after the Banni police did not seek their further physical custody.

The New Town police claimed to have arrested these men along with four others a month back with suicide jackets.

The law-enforcement personnel recovered a 12.7mm anti-aircraft gun and a 7.62mm machinegun from the rooftop of a rented house after the area people heard gunshots. Though the government denied at that time the target was the president’s plane, the Banni police registered a case of the incident.

In another case, the court put off hearing in the case of a suicide attack on the convoy of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz at Fatehjang in 2004. In the jail trail, the judge recorded the statements of two prosecution witnesses. Maulvi Imtiaz and Mohammad Usman are the two accused and the court has already convicted four other men in the case.

Intimidating calls case: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench here on Tuesday declined bail to a man arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for allegedly making intimidating calls to the agency’s headquarters in Islamabad and threatening to carry out suicide bombings at the offices.

A division bench comprising Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq and Justice Mazhar Hussain Minhas rejected the bail plea of Zeeshan Ahmed, a resident of Rawalpindi, and directed the anti terrorism court (ATC) conducting his trail to conclude the proceedings in four weeks as the FIA had submitted a charge-sheet against the accused.

Zeeshan, who was arrested two months ago, in his bail petition maintained that he never made any call to the FIA, adding that no lab test of the taped phone calls had been carried out to determine whether or not the voice was his. He said the matter needed further inquiry that could be done without him being in physical custody of the investigators.

The state counsel said that keeping in view the recent terrorist attacks on FIA offices in Lahore, the threats were taken seriously and Zeeshan was traced through his cellphone number and a case was registered against him for intimidating public servants.

Separately, Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq directed Superintendent of Police (SP) Range Crime, Rawalpindi, not to harass a woman and record her statements while investigating a murder case registered against her son. Shehzad Begum through her lawyer, Aftab Khan, petitioned the LHC that her son, Adil Kiani, was booked by the Sohawa police in a murder case in 2006 and the police declared him the murderer in the charge-sheet. But the woman, through a court of law, got the inquiry officer changed to the SP after complaining of dissatisfaction at the investigation.

Shehzad Begum said she later moved a complaint with the regional police officer Rawalpindi against the behaviour of the SP, claiming that he had not been recording the statements of defence witnesses and his behaviour towards the petitioner was also humiliating.