RAWALPINDI, Sept 30: An anti terrorism court here on Tuesday dismissed the bail petition of three brothers allegedly involved in planning a suicide attack on the bus of an intelligence agency outside Hamza Camp last November. ATC No. II Judge Sakhi Mohammad Kahot dismissed the bail application of Syed Abdul Basit, Syed Abdul Majid and Syed Abdul Saboor, all residents of Lahore, saying they were arrested with three other co-accused and police recovered suicide vests and explosive material from them.

The court observed that it had not been established through any record that the three accused were secretly in police custody before they were arrest was made public in July, therefore they could not be granted bail at this stage.

The three accused had maintained in their bail petition that they were arrested on November 25, 2007, from their shop in Urdu Bazaar Lahore where they reprinted Holy Quran, and that were kept in illegal detention since July 1 when the New Town police claimed the arrests.

The petitioners maintained that their mother filed a habeas corpus petition with the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the SHO at Shafiqabad police station in Lahore for “abducting and detaining” them unlawfully.

In the petition they had maintained that police raided their house and took away their car along with other valuables. They also said they had never been involved in criminal activities or associated with any banned religious outfit.

They contended that the police had recovered nothing from them and had completed initial investigation. If granted bail they would be at the call of the court to pursue their case.

The court, however, observed that the accused petitioners could not be granted bail at this stage as they were allegedly involved in terrorist activities.

According to details of the case, the suspects and three other persons were arrested by the New Town police on July 1 for their alleged involvement in the suicide attack outside Hamza Camp. Meanwhile, ATC No. I Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman sent three men allegedly involved in kidnapping and killing a teenage boy to Adiala Jail on judicial remand for 14 days.

The accused – Imran Rasheed, Rizwan Rasheed and Ijaz Ahmed – were sent to jail for kidnapping Qazi Abdul Qadir, a class-XII student, for ransom and killing him. They had earlier demanded Rs5 million as ransom. Police recovered the dead body of the boy from Murree after arresting the accused who were traced through their phones.

In another case, the man whose 10-year-old son was killed in a police encounter withdrew his criminal complaint against the Superintendent of Police Islamabad (West) Nasir Aftab and said he did not want to pursue the case. Gulistan Ali, father of deceased Zeeshan Ali, withdrew his complaint from the ATC No. I.