ISLAMABAD: A Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday acquitted two alleged members of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who were arrested for planning an attack on New Year’s Eve in Rawalpindi last year.

ATC Judge Sulaiman Baig acquitted Hassan Muaviya and Mohammad Imran after the prosecution failed to make its case against both men, and the defence pleaded that the men were “missing persons” prior to their arrest in the aforementioned case.

The Attock Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) arrested both suspects near the Chach interchange, an area on the edge of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that was also the constituency of slain Punjab home minister retired Col Shuja Khanzada, on Dec 28, 2016.

Khanzada was killed in a suicide attack on his office in Shadi Khan on Aug 16, 2015. In October that year, the Sheikhupura CTD killed four suspected terrorists who had allegedly planned the attack that killed Khanzada.

The trial one of the suspects in the case, Qasim Muaviya, is ongoing before a Rawalpindi ATC.

Upon arresting Mr Muaviya and Mr Imran in 2016, the CTD had allegedly recovered two hand grenades, 1.1 kilograms of explosive material, 12 detonators and other illegal items from their possession.

According to the prosecution, the two men had planned an attack in different parts of Rawalpindi that New Year’s Eve. It produced seven witnesses, including CTD officials and a Bomb Disposal Squad commander, as well as materials allegedly recovered by the CTD from the two men.

Defence Counsel Maulana Wajihullah, however, argued that Mr Muaviya and Mr Imran went missing on Dec 2 and Dec 3 that year from Multan.

He told the court that Mr Muaviya used to run a general store in Multan, while Mr Imran was a farmer.

He alleged that the Multan CTD apprehended both men at their homes and took them to an unknown location.

The counsel said Mr Muaviya’s brother Abdul Hanan had filed an application before the Supreme Court’s human rights cell on Dec 5, 2016, seeking the recovery of his brother.

The defence also produced two witnesses in this matter.

In June, a Rawalpindi ATC acquitted two alleged members of the banned Jamatul Furqan because their date of arrest in the records was not the same as the date on which the CTD took them into custody.

The CTD had allegedly picked them up at a mosque in Soan Garden on May 16, but the records stated that they were arrested May 27 near Gulzar-i-Quaid. The two men – Maulana Abdul Majid and Mohammad Rizwan – were arrested for possession of explosive material and detonators.

Mr Majid was the khateeb at Jamia Masjid in Soan Garden, a private housing society on the Islamabad Expressway, while Mr Rizwan was the naib khateeb.

The CTD had also claimed to have recovered Rs300,000 from the possession of the two men, which the FIR claimed were funds raised finance “jihad”.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2017