PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench has granted transit bail to a police inspector till July 8 in a case of kidnapping a person from Islamabad in February this year.

A single-member bench of Justice Syed M. Attique Shah accepted a petition filed by the suspect, Inspector Ibad Wazir of the counter-terrorism department (CTD), Peshawar, and allowed him transit/protective bail on condition of furnishing two sureties of Rs50,000 each.

The petitioner was charged along with a superintendent of police CTD, Asad Ali Khan, with the kidnapping of a person named Mohammad Hamid alias Khalid, a resident of Bari Imam, Islamabad, on Feb 19, 2022. Since the alleged kidnapping of Mohammad Hamid his whereabouts are not known.

The petitioner’s counsel contended that the petitioner was charged in the instant case with mala fide intentions.

He apprehended that his client would be arrested by the Islamabad police. He claimed that the petitioner was falsely implicated in the case.

The bench directed the petitioner to approach the relevant court in Islamabad by July 8 or appear before the concerned police station, failing which this order would stand recalled.

A few days ago another bench had granted protective bail to SP Asad Ali till July 4.

The FIR of the occurrence was registered at the Secretariat police station, Islamabad, on the complaint of Mohammad Ilyas, brother of the kidnapped person, under section 365 (kidnapping for wrongfully keeping a person in confinement) of Pakistan Penal Code.

The complainant claimed that they were residents of Bannu and presently residing in Islamabad.

He stated that his brother was returning home from his shop situated at Bari Imam Bazaar when some persons in police uniform came there in three vehicles and forcibly took him away.

Later, the complainant stated that they had enmity with the SP in Bannu and now he came to know that the said SP along with other CTD officials had taken his brother away.

The concerned police subsequently also charged the present petitioner, Ibad Wazir, in the case.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2022