KARACHI: The police informed the administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts on Tuesday that they had also released a fourth suspect out of the five allegedly detained for spying for India because of lack of evidence.

The counterterrorism department of police claimed to have arrested five fishermen — Saddam Hussain, Bachal, Nadeem, Zeeshan and Ghulam Sarwar — on April 18.

The CTD detained them under Section 11-EEEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 for an inquiry for allegedly having ties with and spying for Indian spying agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

However, an official through a report informed the court that they had also released Bachal as no evidence was found against him during the investigation.

It added that Saddam had formally been booked in a case and his remand was obtained from an area magistrate.

Earlier, the CTD had informed the administrative judge that they had released the other three suspects for want of evidence.

Facebook kidnapper sent to prison for life

An antiterrorism court sentenced on Tuesday a man to life in prison for kidnapping his Facebook friend for ransom.

Taimur Alvi was found guilty of abducting 13-year-old Facebook friend Mustafa Dossal in May 2013 outside his school in the Defence Housing Authority and handing him over to his accomplices, who demanded a ransom of Rs50 million from the captive’s family.

ATC-III judge Syed Shakeel Haider also ordered the confiscation of moveable and immoveable property of the convict.

According to the prosecution, Mustafa was studying in a noted private school in Defence Phase-II and he had a 12-year-old Facebook friend, Saad Alvi. But Saad Alvi’s elder brother, Taimur, took over the friendship. On May 24, the suspect picked up the victim outside his school, took him to Lyari to hand him over to four kidnappers and then drove him to a Hub area.

It further said that the police tracked down Taimur a couple of days after the kidnapping and he led a joint team of the Anti-Violent Crime Cell and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee to a hideout in Hub.

Four suspected kidnappers were killed in an exchange of fire and the captive was recovered.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2016