PESHAWAR, June 3: Two persons, facing charges of blowing up a levies fort and a police station in Lower Dir two years ago, were granted bail by the Peshawar High Court on Friday. Separately, a person accused of drug trafficking was denied bail.

In the first case, Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, as a single-judge bench, directed Maulvi Shahzaib and Rasheed Khan to furnish surety bonds of Rs500,000 each, and undertake not to keep contact with any terrorist outfit and to inform police if they wished to move out of the district.

They are being tried in three cases.

In one case the prosecution alleges that the two were among the dozens of militants who had attacked Dir Levies Fort at Chakdara on May 8, 2009 and set it on fire. The attackers allegedly also took away a double-cabin vehicle loaded with arms and ammunition with them.

Similarly, they allegedly took part in the attack by militants on Ouch Police Station in Lower Dir with explosives and were involved also in planting improvised explosive devices in the area.

Advocate Mohammad Ajmal, appeared for the petitioners, contended that in these cases the police had charged ‘dozens of persons’ without any evidence on the basis of source reports. His clients were among those dozens of suspects arrested and charged, when no recovery was made from them.

Neither they admitted to their presence at the crime scenes, he said nor the police put them through identification parade, nor recorded any confessional statements by them.

BAIL DENIED: Separately, another bench of the high court dismissed the bail petition of Umer Wahid, of Shergarh area of Mardan, who was arrested by the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) on charges of smuggling contraband.

Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, comprising the bench, observed that keeping in view the evidence on record the accused-petitioner did not deserve to be set free on bail.

Advocate Tariq Khan Kakar appeared for the ANF and argued that the petitioner was caught red-handed by the ANF on April 29, 2011, and the officials had recovered 5kg heroin from his custody. He said the accused was charged under section 9 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act and the offence was non-bailable.