LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Friday allowed Sarwar Road police to shift Ahmer Rasheed Bhatti, a PTI-backed independent MPA-elect from PP-165, to jail for his identification parade in the Jinnah House attack case of May 9 riots.

The police arrested Bhatti from Raiwind the other day on the basis of an alleged mobile phone footage wherein he was provoking PTI workers to attack the Jinnah House.

The police presented the PTI leader before the court and sought his judicial remand to conduct an identification parade.

The investigating officer (IO) stated that Bhatti was wanted in the Jinnah House attack case, and videos of his involvement were available with the police.

The courtroom was filled with the lawyers affiliated to the PTI.

The lawyers opposed the judicial remand, arguing that the charges against Bhatti were politically motivated due to his victory in the election.

They questioned why the MPA-elect had not been arrested earlier if there were any charges against him. They asked the court to discharge Bhatti from the case.

Judge Naveed Iqbal granted seven-day judicial remand of the suspect to the police to conduct his identity parade.

The judge directed the police to present the suspect again on Feb 23.

BAIL: The Lahore High Court on Friday granted post-arrest bail to 11 suspects in a May 9 case of attacking the office of an intelligence agency in Faisalabad.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Aalia Neelum, allowed the bail petitions of the suspects subject to furnishing surety bonds of Rs200,000 each.

Civil Lines police of Faisalabad had registered the case.

The petitioners’ counsel argued before the court that the police failed to produce any cogent evidence against the suspects. He said the petitioners were in jail for the last eight months without trial.

A state lawyer argued that the suspects were arrested on the basis of a video and pictorial evidence, which proved their presence on the occurrence.

The bench, however, allowed the bail petitions.

The petitioners include Umair, Aqib, Mohsin, Khurshid, Muhammad Ramzan, Abdul Rehman, Abdul Rasool, Muhammad Shahbaz, Bilal Akram, Tayab Hussain, Naveed Sabir and Arsalan Nazir.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2024