KARACHI: The administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts on Saturday remanded five suspects, said to be involved in an attack on the Chinese consulate general in Karachi last year, in police custody in explosives and illicit weapons cases.

The investigating officer, Nusrat Shaikh, produced the suspects — Ahmed Hussain, Nadir Khan alias Baladi, Ali Ahmed alias Hashim, Abdul Latif and Mohammad Aslam — before the judge and submitted that they were arrested during a raid in Sadiq Baloch Goth, Taiser Town, and explosive substances as well as unlicensed weapons were found in their possession.

The IO submitted that the suspects were required for questioning as the police had to arrest their absconding accomplices and trace their criminal record since they were also involved in some other cases.

Police filed an ‘A-class’ report last month stating that suspects in Chinese CG case are not traceable

The administrative judge handed over the suspects to the police on five-day physical remand and directed the IO to produce them again on the next date along with a progress report.

A main case was registered against the suspects under Sections 4/5 of Explosive Substances Act, 1908 read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Gulshan-i-Maymar police station. They were also booked in four connected cases under Section 21(i)(a) of Sindh Arms Act, 2013.

The remand papers were silent about their alleged involvement in the Chinese CG attack and their affiliation with any banned militant outfit.

It was mentioned in the FIRs that police conducted a raid on a tip-off that the accomplices of the militants who attacked the Chinese CG were planning to carry out more attacks.

However, the Karachi police chief had told a press conference on Friday that the held suspects facilitated the militants who stormed the Chinese mission in Karachi and were associated with the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).

Three heavily armed militants carried out the gun-and-grenade attack on the consulate in a high-security zone of Clifton on Nov 23, 2018 in which two policemen and two visa applicants (father and son) were killed before the suspects were gunned down. One private security guard of the foreign mission sustained injuries.

Last month, police had filed an A-class report in the consulate attack case stating that the suspects were not traceable.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2019