KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Saturday sought a reply from the provincial home department about its decision on a prison chief’s recommendation for conducting the “jail trial” of five alleged facilitators of the Chinese consulate attackers due to “security threats”.

The five men — Ahmed Hasnain, Ali Ahmed alias Hashim, Mohammad Aslam, Nadir Khan alias Baladi and Abdul Latif — have been booked and arrested for allegedly providing transport and medical facilities, transportation of weapons and explosives, reconnaissance, accommodation and other assistance to three assailants belonging to the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) who attacked the Chinese consulate in November 2018.

They have been booked under Section 21-I (aid and abetment) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 for allegedly facilitating the militants said to be supported by the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), to harm relations between Pakistan and China.

The investigating officer filed an interim investigation report against the suspects detained in prison when the matter was taken up by the judge of ATC-II. However, he did not produce the suspects in court.

The trial court adjourns the matter on state prosecutor’s request

When the court asked about the suspects’ custody, a state prosecutor submitted that the jail superintendent had recommended to the provincial home department that their trial should be conducted inside the prison since they could not be transported from prison to the trial court due to prevailing “security threats”.

He also submitted a copy of the letter issued by the prison chief in this regard and said that a response to the recommendation was still awaited.

He requested to the judge to adjourn the matter till a notification for their jail trial was issued by the home department.

Allowing his request, the judge adjourned the matter till Feb 27, directing the prosecutor to inform the court about the progress in this regard on the next date of hearing.

Last week, the administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts had transferred the case to the ATC-II after accepting an interim investigation report submitted by the IO of the Counter-Terrorism Department. The judge, however, asked the IO to submit the final investigation report within 14 days.

In the interim investigation report, the IO charge-sheeted the five suspects as the alleged facilitators and stated that the banned BLA, supported by RAW, was behind the attack.

Harbiyar Marri, the exiled leader of the banned BLA, Ali Dad Baladi, alias Aslam Achhu and 13 others have been named as absconders in the interim report while Abdul Razzaq alias Jalal, Raees Baloch and Azal Baloch were named as those who carried out the gun-and-grenade attack on the consulate in a high-security zone of Clifton on Nov 23, 2018.

Two policemen and two visa applicants (father and son) were killed before the militants were gunned down by police and Rangers personnel.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2019