KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday granted protective bail to 18 suspects in a case pertaining to sedition and fanning enmity between different groups. Noor Ullah, Jan Abbas, Mohammad Moosa, Dost Mohammad and others through their lawyer moved bail application.

The two-judge SHC bench headed by Justice Niamatullah Phulpoto observed that without touching the merit of the case, four-day protective bail was granted against a surety bond of Rs30,000 each and directed the applicants to surrender before the trial court within stipulated period.

The prosecution said that the suspects along with over 200 to 300 others held a meeting on Jan 4 in Gulshan-i-Maymar in which speeches were made and slogans chanted in favour of Manzoor Pashteen, a leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, and against the security forces.

A case was registered under multiple sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act, including sedition and promoting enmity between different groups, etc at the Gulshan-i-Maymar police station.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2019