KARACHI: The administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts remanded on Saturday three women activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in police custody in two cases pertaining to sedition, anti-state offences and attack on media houses.

Police produced Rabia, Sumera and Quratual Ain before court and submitted that they were arrested on Friday after their identification through the footages of media and closed-circuit television cameras installed around the crime scene.

The investigating officer sought their custody for questioning and the administrative judge handed them over to the police on physical remand till Aug 30 and directed the IO to reproduce them on the following day with a progress report.

MQM leaders Kanwar Naveed Jameel, Qamar Mansoor and Shahid Pasha with 36 party activists are already in police custody on physical remand in both cases till Aug 30.

They were booked in two cases registered at the Artillery Madian police station under multiple charges, including sedition and offences against the state.

According to the FIRs, after listening to a highly-provocative speech of the London-based chief of the MQM on Aug 22 at the hunger strike camp outside the Karachi Press Club, the activists allegedly resorted to a violent protest, ransacking media houses, killing a passer-by, wounding around seven others and torching a police mobile van.

MQM lawmaker murder case sent to ATC for trial

The administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts on Saturday sent a case pertaining to the murder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Manzar Imam to an ATC for trial.

Ashiq Khan with his absconding accomplices has been booked for allegedly killing MPA Imam with his three guards during an attack on his vehicle at Hyderi Chowk in Orangi Town in January 2013.

Police submitted a charge sheet against the detained suspect and named Saqib, Pervez, Shafqat, alias Marshal, and some unknown persons as absconders. They also placed the names of 17 prosecution witnesses in the report.

After admitting the charge sheet, the administrative judge referred the case to the ATC-II for trial.

According to the charge sheet, an eyewitness identified the suspect as one of the shooters during an identification parade before a judicial magistrate.

The Rangers claimed to have arrested the suspect in September last year in Tasier Town and placed him under three-month preventive detention. A statement issued by the paramilitary force after the arrest stated that the detained man also belonged to the MQM. After the end of his preventive detention, the Rangers handed him over to police.

Baldia factory fire case

A sessions court referred on Saturday the Baldia factory fire case to the administrative judge of the ATCs.

Police had filed a supplementary charge sheet carrying relevant sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 on Aug 23 following a reinvestigation of the case.

According to the supplementary report, former chief of MQM Karachi Tanzeemi Committee Hammad Siddiqui, then Baldia Town sector in charge Abdul Rehman alias Bhola along with some unknown men were named as absconders in the case.

About a dozen others were left out for lack of evidence while the owners of the ill-fated industrial unit were listed among the prosecution witnesses.

The sessions court sent the case to the administrative judge since police incorporated Sections 6 and 7 of the ATA in the supplementary report.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2016