LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday remanded alleged land grabber Mansha Bamm and his son in 10-day police custody in a case of illegally occupying people’s land in Johar Town.

Earlier, police produced Mansha and his son Asim Mansha before the court and sought their physical remand for investigation and to trace whereabouts of remaining suspects, including Mansha’s other sons.

A deputy prosecutor told the court the suspects had been occupying lands of different individuals worth millions of rupees. He said they were also involved in attacking an anti-encroachment squad of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA).

He said the section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 was rightly included in the cases against the suspects.

Advocate Farhad Ali Shah, arguing on behalf of the suspects, denied the allegations of land grabbing against them.

He said the police with mala fide intention added section 7 of ATA in the cases registered 10 years ago.

He argued that the police falsely declared ancestral property of Mansha as illegally occupied land.

The counsel asked the court to delete the provision of the anti-terrorism law from the case and refer the matter to an ordinary court (sessions court).

ATC Judge Sajjad Ahmad granted the police 10-day physical remand of the suspects and sent them to jail on judicial remand in LDA team attack case.

Mansha Bamm had surrendered before the Supreme Court in Islamabad as he went underground after police lodged cases against him.

BAIL EXTENDED: A sessions court on Wednesday extended the pre-arrest interim bail of former police inspector Abid Boxer in 10 criminal cases registered against him at different police stations of the provincial metropolis.

However, the former policeman withdrew his bail petitions in five of the cases after police submitted a report in the court declaring him innocent.

Talking to the media persons, Abid Boxer said police investigation proved that he was innocent and cases lodged against him were politically motivated. He claimed that he would stand exonerated in remaining cases as well.

Abid Boxer had joined the police service in 1988 as an assistant sub-inspector and was later promoted as inspector.

He left the country in 2008 following registration of multiple cases against him under murder and other charges.

He secretly returned to the country in July last while the government kept denying reports of his extradition.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2018