KARACHI, Jan 12: The administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts in Karachi on Wednesday remanded nine suspects allegedly involved in the Shershah scrap market carnage case in police custody till Jan 19.

The nine suspects — Ijaz, Iqbal, Mohammad Akbar, Asghar Ali, Mohammad Tufail, Abdul Rasheed, Tehseen, Jauhar and Abid — who had surrendered themselves to the police on Jan 11, were produced before the administrative judge of ATCs, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah of the Sindh High Court, for remand.

The court remanded the suspects in police custody and directed the Sindh police chief to appoint an SP for probing the matter in view of its heinous nature.

According to the prosecution, the suspects, said to be associated with one of the several criminal gangs operating in Lyari, have been booked for killing 13 people, mostly traders, at the Shershah scrap market on Oct 19, 2010.

Four other suspects — Lal Mohammad Magsi, Shafi Magsi, Pervez and Ali Nawaz — had already been arrested.

A case (FIR 578/2010) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Pak Colony police station on a complaint of a survivor, Mohammad Nafees.