ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Islamabad Thursday rejected the post-arrest bail of a suspect in the Dr Imran Farooq murder case.

The ATC dismissed the bail plea of suspect Khalid Shamim after the counsel for the accused and the prosecutor concluded their arguments.

The prosecuting agency, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) alleged that the suspect was involved in planning Imran Farooq’s murder and produced the suspect’s confessional statement according to which Khalid Shamim met with another suspect in the case at the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) office at 90 Karachi, where they discussed the murder plan. The FIA alleged that the suspect also gained monetary benefits from the murder.

The suspect’s counsel argued that the FIA was making allegations without submitting any documents and producing any witnesses in the court.

After this, the FIA submitted some documents in court, including Imran Farooq’s death certificate.

Khalid Shamim and another accused in the case, Syed Mohsin Ali have already recorded their confessional statements before a magistrate, saying that the late Imran Farooq was killed because he was a “threat to the MQM leadership.

A third suspect, Moazzam Ali, has not yet recorded a confessional statement.

The FIA had registered a case against MQM chief Altaf Hussein and other party leaders on December 5, 2015 for their alleged involvement in the murder of Dr Imran Farooq in 2010, who was stabbed and beaten to death near his apartment in Green Lane, Edgware in the UK.

The FIA’s counter-terrorism wing had registered a case under the relevant clauses of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the clauses of conspiracy, assistance, abetment and assassination/murder have also been incorporated in the FIR.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2016