KARACHI, July 12: The SSP of the Special Investigation Unit on Saturday informed the additional district and sessions judge-VII (South), Irfan Hussain Siddiqui, that the accused in the case pertaining to the alleged attempt to kill Asif Ali Zardari in 1999 could not be arrested as some of them were presently abroad and the others had gone underground.

The judge had issued non-bailable warrants on June 27 for the arrest of the accused, former chairman of the National Accountability Bureau Saifur Rehman Khan, his brother, Mujibur Rehman Khan, former IG Rana Maqbool, former DIG Farooq Amin Qureshi and former superintendent of the Central Prison Karachi Najaf Mirza in the case. He had directed the SSP to produce the accused before him on July 12.

Upon receiving the SSP’s response, the judge re-issued the non-bailable warrants and ordered their production in the court on the next date of hearing, fixed at July 28.

According to the prosecution, the respondents had unlawfully obtained Asif Zardari’s physical custody from an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on the night between May 15 and 16 in 1999 and took him to the CIA Centre, where he was subjected to torture. The respondents also forced him to give incriminatory statements, it stated.