GUJRAT: An Anti-Terrorism Court in Gujranwala on Saturday awarded a three-day physical remand of Dr Aminul Haq, an Afghan national and believed to be ‘close aide’ of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, who had been arrested by the Counter Terrorism Department from Sara-i-Alamgir town of Gujrat district on Friday.

A joint investigation team of CTD produced Dr Haq, the former security officer of Al-Qaeda chief, in a local ATC and sought the physical remand of the suspect for further investigation.

An official of the team informed the court that the suspect had been arrested during a raid in Sara-i-Alamgir and a case was lodged against him with CTD Gujranwala police station under different sections of ATA 1997.

He told the court that the CTD had to further investigate the suspect about his other accomplices as well as to ascertain the facts about how he had managed to get the Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) of Pakistan while being an Afghan national.

He also said that the suspect had been planning to execute more terrorist activities in Pakistan as weapons were also recovered from him. However, the court handed over the suspect to the CTD on three-day physical remand.

The CTD official said the authorities had constituted a joint investigation team comprising at least six senior officials from various intelligence and law-enforcement agencies to investigate the suspect.

Strict security measures were made in and around the Gujranwala ATC.

Dr Amin had been included in the list of global terrorists issued by the UN since 2001.

A CTD official told reporters outside the court that the Nadra staffers, who had helped Dr Haq in the issuance of his CNIC around 12 years ago, would also be traced and the Nadra authorities would be recommended to take action against those officials as per law and departmental rules.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2024