ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: A local court, on Wednesday, decided to indict Maulana Abdul Aziz, chief cleric of Lal Masjid, his spouse and two senior clerics, in the kidnapping case of four police officials, but on technical grounds decided to delay the proceedings till Thursday (today).

Senior Civil Judge (SCJ) of Islamabad “west” Sheikh Mohammad Sohail decided to indict Maulana Aziz, Umme Hassan, Maulana Afzal and Maulana Abdul Basir, on Wednesday, but then adjourned the matter due to some technical reasons and asked the clerics to appear on Thursday.

The Aabpara police, before July 2007 Lal Masjid operation, had registered a case against Maulana Aziz and his four associates on kidnapping of four police officials on the complaint of a police constable Mohammad Arif.

The FIR against Maulana Aziz and others was registered under sections 365, 353, 148, 149 and 109, for kidnapping and obstructing the government officials from performing their lawful duty.

The arguments of the case were concluded on December 22, 2012 but at the time when the court was about to reserve its judgment, the lawyers in the case pointed out that the court did not frame charges against the accused persons and the matter was adjourned till January 2 and subsequently put off till January 9.

It is pertinent to note that in the FIR, the police had nominated five persons for the kidnapping of four police officials. Besides the four accused persons stated above, there was another accused in the said case namely Mohammad Aamir.

Aamir was also facing charges for attacking the GHQ and ISI Hamza camp but was acquitted along with 11 others by the Anti Terrorism Court, in April 2008, but was detained at Adiala Jail and then handed over to the spy agencies.

Later on August 15, 2011, Aamir was found dead while he was in the custody of the agencies.

After Aamir, three other detainees, namely, Tahseen Ullah on December 17, 2011 Said Arab on December 18, 2011 and Abdul Saboor on January 20, last year, also died in detention. The court after the death of Aamir excluded his name from the challan.