RAWALPINDI, Oct 1: An anti-terrorism court here on Monday granted bail to six lawyers, arrested in a case of thrashing Dr Farooq Sattar, an MQM MNA on Sept 29 when lawyers were protesting against the candidature of President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

The ATC-II judge, Sakhi Muhammad, accepted the bail application of the lawyers against surety bonds of Rs 50,000 each and ordered their immediate release, if they were not wanted in any other case.

Earlier, the judge deferred the bail application of six lawyers, Hassan Raza Pasha, Junaid Akhtar Khokhar, Malik Kamran Noon, Shaukat Satti, Laeeq Khan Sawati and Chaudhry Zaffar Ahmed till Oct 2.

The judge had to return to the court after the Supreme Court ordered that the bail application of the lawyers must be settled on Monday.

According to details, an FIR was registered at the Abpara police station against six lawyers for attacking Dr Sattar and against some senior lawyers —Munir A Malik, president Supreme Court Bar Association, Ali Ahmed Kurd, former vice chairman Pakistan Bar Council, Hamid Khan and Justice retired Tariq Mehmood for abetting the attack against the MQM leader.

These lawyers, as per the FIR, allegedly thrashed the MQM leader on Sept 29 at the Federal Government Services Hospital (Poly Clinic) for treatment.

The FIR charged the lawyers with attempt to murder, terrorism, abetment and unlawful assembly. The arrested lawyers were sent by a judicial magistrate, in Islamabad, to central jail Adiala on Sunday on a 14-day judicial remand.

Another lawyer, Hasan Raza Pasha, was also nominated in an FIR registered against some lawyers for maltreating the vice president of the SCBA from Sindh, Khawaja Naveed, in the premises of the Karachi district courts, in August this year.

Late in the evening, the five lawyers were freed from the Adiala Jail, while the sixth lawyer was still under treatment at the Poly Clinic for severe injuries.

A large number of lawyers were present outside the jail to receive the freed lawyers.