KARACHI: An antiterrorism court remanded on Friday eight suspects in police custody in an arson attack case.

The police produced Mohammed Tufail, Shamsul Alam, Badi Alam, Yusuf, Saifuddin, Mohammad Owais, Taimoor and Moshin before the court for remand.

The investigating officer informed the court that the suspects were arrested for allegedly setting a truck on fire in Korangi on Thursday when city life remained suspended on a strike call given by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

The IO further submitted that there were around a dozen of absconders in the case and sought custody of the detained suspects for further questioning and arrest of the absconding suspects.

The judge of the ATC-I, Bashir Ahmed Khoso, handed over the suspects to the police on physical remand till Feb 12 and asked the IO to produce them along with a progress report on the next hearing.

The prosecution said that the suspects along with their absconding accomplices intercepted a truck carrying wooden stuff and set it on fire and in the meantime a police party on patrol reached the crime scene and arrested the suspects while around 12 others managed to escape.

A case was registered under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage, etc) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Awami Colony police station.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2015

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