KARACHI: The administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts remanded on Wednesday suspected Lyari gangster Uzair Jan Baloch in police custody for two weeks in an explosives and illicit weapons case.

The Rangers had detained the chief of the banned Lyari Peoples Aman Committee, Uzair Ali, alias Uzair Jan Baloch, under 90-day preventive detention for an inquiry following his mysterious arrest.

After the end of his detention, the paramilitary force handed him over to police on Tuesday and lodged a new case against him for allegedly hiding arms, ammunition and explosives in a Garden locality on the complaint of a Rangers inspector at the Nabi Bux police station.

The police produced the suspect before the administrative judge of ATCs Karachi and sought his custody for questioning.

The court handed him over to the police on 14-day physical remand.

According to the FIR, the alleged gangster led the paramilitary soldiers to the discovery of a light machine gun, 500 bullets, Russian-made rocket-propelled grenade-7 launcher, some rockets and hand grenades buried in a ground near a dumping yard in the Garden area.

The suspect was also involved in several cases of targeted killing and other offences falling under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Uzair, once known for his loyalty to the Pakistan Peoples Party and close contacts with its certain leaders, was declared absconder in over 40 cases pending before ATCs.

Around 35 cases pertaining to murder, attempted murder and attacking the police were registered against him during the operation conducted in Lyari in 2012.

He was also declared a proclaimed offender in the triple murder of Arshad Pappu, the alleged leader of a Lyari gang, his brother Yasir Arafat and their confidant Juma Shera, who were killed in Lyari in March 2013.

The saga of Uzair’s arrest is embroiled in controversies as more than a year after his arrest in Dubai by Interpol, he mysteriously surfaced in Karachi only to be caught by Sindh Rangers in their ‘targeted action’.

Policeman jailed

An anticorruption court sentenced on Wednesday a police officer and his civilian accomplice to three years in prison in a graft case.

Assistant sub-inspector Amir, then posted at the Saudabad police station, and civilian accused Asad Razzaq were held accountable for collecting a bribe from complainant Babar Ali Khan against his release in 2009.

However, the court acquitted co-accused sub-inspector Mohammed Hussain and Faisal for lack of evidence.

The judge, Gulshan Ara Chandio, also imposed a fine of Rs200,000 each and in case of non-payment the convicts would undergo an additional six-month imprisonment.

All the accused were on bail and following the pronouncement of the judgement both convicts were taken into custody and sent to prison.

Extortionists convicted

An antiterrorism court sentenced on Wednesday two extortionists to five years in prison.

Ali Raza and Phul Mian were found guilty of demanding protection money from a trader by putting him in fear of death in New Karachi Industrial Area in August 2014.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2016