SAHIWAL: Anti-Terrorism Court Special Judge Malik Shabbir Hussain Awan has acquitted Mehar Sattar, the provincial general secretary of the Anjuman-i-Mazareen Punjab, and others in three cases.

The others are AMP district secretary Tahir Jameel, Nadeem Ashraf, an activist, and Hafiz Hasnain, district correspondent of an Urdu daily in Okara.

The B-Division Saddar police and Satgrah police failed to give evidence of explosive devices the four people were accused of having.

A case FIR No 531/16 was registered by the Saddar police against Hafiz Hasnain on Sept 11, by the B-Division police against Mehar Sattar and Tahir Jamil on Oct 14 (FIR No 908/16) and by Satgrah police against Nadeem Ashraf on Oct 4 (FIR No 817/17) – all under the Explosives Act. The FIRs said police recovered explosive material and hand grenades from the houses of the four people.

The court ordered immediate release of the four accused after police failed to bring in evidence and prove their claims.

Malik Zafar Khokhar, the counsel for Hafiz Hasnain, told this correspondent that his client had been acquitted.

Mehar Sattar is facing some other cases as well.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2018