PESHAWAR: An anti-terrorism court has granted bail to two people charged by the counter terrorism department with possessing explosive material and a hand grenade in Mardan around three months ago.

Accepting the bail pleas of Wasihullah and Hamid Khan, judge Syed Muamber Jan asked the two to produce two surety bonds valuing Rs100,000 each to secure release.

In the petition, both the suspects had claimed that they were taken into custody by law-enforcement agencies agency and that after remaining in illegal confinement for many weeks, they’re implicated in a concocted case, which was registered by the CTD, Mardan, on Oct 18, 2017.

Malik Ajmal Khan, lawyer for petitioner Wasihullah, said the CTD had claimed in the FIR that it had arrested the two suspects on a tip-off as they’re wandering on Saleem Khan Road in Mardan in ‘suspected condition’.

He said the CTD also claimed to have recovered five kilogrammes of explosive material from Wasihullah and a hand grenade from other suspect, Hamid.

The lawyer said his client was the son of a former curator of the Department of Botany, University of Peshawar, Zabihullah Khan, and lived in the Professors Colony.

He said the law-enforcement agencies had taken his client away on July 22, 2017, during a raid on his house and that they had told his family that they would free him after interrogation about a matter.

The lawyer said when his client was not released, his father had lodged a complaint with the Campus police station on Aug 10 but the police put it down in the daily diary.

He added that the petitioner’s father later approached the SSP complaining that the police didn’t mention in the daily dairy that he was taken away by the law-enforcement agencies.

The lawyer said the family members of his client were later informed that the petitioner would be produced before an anti-terrorism court in Mardan on Oct 21.

He added that when the family visited the court, they found out that Wasihullah was charged in an FIR registered by the CTD on Oct 18.

The lawyer for suspect Hamid Khan said his client was a resident of Kohi Hassankhel area in FR Peshawar and was taken into custody by law-enforcement agencies on July 17, 2017, from near a mosque.

He said despite having prior information and the alleged place of occurrence, a public area, no independent witness had been brought on record. The lawyer said as mentioned in the ‘recovery memo’, the explosive material were sealed on the spot, but an ASI of the bomb disposal unit revealed that it was found in an ‘open condition’.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2018