LAHORE: An antiterrorism court (ATC) on Thursday extended the physical remand of a teenage boy for five days in a case of road accident in the Defence House Authority (DHA) that claimed lives of six members of a family.

The police presented the suspect, Afnan Shafqat, before the court on expiry of his previous five-day physical remand.

Rafaqat Ali, the complainant of the FIR, also appeared before the court.

The investigating officer (IO) contended that further custody of the suspect was required to conduct polygraph and photogrammatic tests. He claimed that the age of the suspect was apparently more than 17 years.

However, the IO said, the bone ossification test for determining the age of the suspect had not yet been completed.

He said the suspect and his accomplices had also made offensive remarks to women passengers of the car. He said the prosecution also needed to determine at what speed the suspect was driving the car at the time of the incident.

The IO asked the court to extend the physical remand of the suspect for seven days.

A lawyer for the suspect opposed the remand and asked the court to send the boy to jail on judicial remand. He argued that the police unlawfully added the offence of terrorism in the case under section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

A counsel for the complainant stated that the suspect had not challenged his remand before the high court and also withdrew his petition against inclusion of murder charge in the FIR.

Judge Abher Gul Khan extended the physical remand of Afnan for further five days and directed the IO to submit a report on the progress in the investigation at the next hearing.

Speaking to the media outside the court, complainant Rafaqat Ali alleged that he had been receiving threats and pressure was being exerted on him to withdraw the case.

“They said I have a son and three daughters behind me,” he said, mentioning the threats he received.

Rafaqat said he had been warned that he would regret pursuing the case.

The complainant lost his wife Rukhsana Bibi (45), son Husnain (25), daughter-in-law Ayesha (23), son-in-law Sajjad (30), four-month-old grandson Huzaifa, and granddaughter Anaya (4) in the deadly road accident.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2023