KARACHI: The administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts on Monday remanded three suspected militants in police custody in cases pertaining to possession of explosives and illicit weapons.

The Rangers and Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) had arrested the suspects — Ahmed Nawaz, Mohammed Aziz, Mohammed Zafran and Mohammed Noor — on July 13 and found explosives and weapons in their possession. Their ringleader, identified as Musharraf Khan Mehsud, died when he jumped off the roof of a building in order to avoid arrest.

The suspects were said to be linked to the militant Islamic State group and formerly associated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

An investigating officer of the AVCC produced the detained suspects before the administrative judge of the ATCs Karachi. He submitted that they were arrested in a house adjacent to a seminary in Surjani Town and sought their custody for questioning.

The administrative judge handed them over to the IO on physical remand till July 21 and directed him to produce them again on the next hearing along with a progress report.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2018