September 03, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 2, 1429

RAWALPINDI, Sept 2: An anti-terrorism court here on Tuesday extended the physical remand of three suspected terrorists arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and issued warrants for the arrest of eight others for their alleged role in a plot to target police offices in the city.

ATC No. 2 Judge Sakhi Mohammad Kahot gave Khurram Ishtiaq of Rawalpindi, Shamim Alam of South Waziristan and Ghulam Mustafa of Kahuta into the physical custody of the FIA for six days after an assistant director sought a 10-day extension to extract more information about their plan to carry out suicide attacks.

The three men were reportedly arrested from Misrial area of the Rawalpindi Cantonment on August 24.

The FIA Crime Circle registered a criminal case against the three under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of PPC, Sections 4 and 5 of Explosive Act and Section 7 of Anti Terrorism Act for planning to attack the offices of SSP and DIG of Rawalpindi police.

The court also issued arrest warrants of eight other suspected terrorists in the case after the FIA submitted in the court that they wanted to arrest them for their involvement as alleged by the suspects in custody.

The accused were identified as Mohammad Tayyab Mehmood, Usman and Abdul Rahim of Sargodha; Qari Hussain and Habibullah of South Wasirirstan; Sajid Dilore and Qari Saleem of Miramshah; and Ustad – whose real name and residence are unknown.

The court directed the investigators to submit a report on the action to the court on September 16.

An interesting incident took place when the Federal Investigation Agency personnel arrested two men – Rifatullah Mawia and Waseem – from outside the court for behaving suspiciously and making calls using cellphones. Later, they were released after a lawyer said they were his clients and were calling him.

Separately, the court extended the judicial remand of six alleged terrorists – Shafiqur Rehman (Mardan), Mohammad Mazharul Haq (Islamabad), Niaz Ahmed (Rawalpindi), and Syed Abdul Majid, Syed Abdul Saboor and Syed Abdul Basit (Lahore) – for 14 more days after the police said the accused could not be produced because of serious security concerns.

The New Town police said the six men were arrested on July 1 from the area on the back of the Rawalpindi Arts Council.

The police also recovered three suicide vests from the custody of – Niaz, Mazhar and Shafiq – besides five different kinds of detonators and other explosive material.

The suspected terrorists were allegedly planning to carry out attacks on important personalities.

The six men are also suspected of an alleged role in the suicide attack on November 24 last year when a suspected bomber rammed his explosive-laden van into a bus packed with security personnel at the gate of an intelligence establishment’s compound, known as Hamza Camp (old Ojhri Camp), near Faizabad. Seventeen people were killed in the attack.