RAWALPINDI, Dec 5: The Islamabad’s Secretariat police here on Friday submitted a charge sheet to an anti-terrorism court (ATC) against four men accused of involvement in the deadly suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in September.

The investigators pressed the charges against Dr Mohammad Usman, Tehseenullah Jan (both residents of Peshawar), Hameed Afzal of Toba Tek Singh and Rana Ilyas of Faisalabad in the ATC No. 1. Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman distributed the copies of charge sheet among the accused and put off the hearing till January 19.

The court also directed the police to post the ‘wanted posters’ of the three other absconders –Ashfaq Ahmed, Mohammad Imran and Abraruddin – as they could not be arrested the police, who obtained their arrest warrants form the court.

Fifty-four people, including a few foreigners, lost there lives and 266 were injured when a dumper truck laden with over 600kg explosives hit the front gate of the hotel in Ramazan soon after Iftar on September 20, setting the whole building ablaze. The attack has been described as the most devastating blast in the federal capital and a Pakistani 9/11.

The Secretariat police registered a case under sections 302 (murder), 324 (attempted murder), 427 (mischief causing damage), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc.) and 109 (abetment) of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) 1860, Section 7 (spreading terror) of Anti Terrorist Act (ATA) 1997 and sections 3 and 4 of Explosive Act (EA) on September 20 against unknown persons.

Separately, the court put off the hearing in 21 cases related to Lal Masjid incident till January 14, as lawyers from both sides were stated to be busy at the Supreme Court.

The family of Maulana Aziz, the former chief clerk of Lal Masjid, and some other accused, mostly the students of Jamia Faridia, were also present in the court. The lawyer of Maulana Aziz had moved an application seeking transfer of the cases to the sessions court as the terrorism charges could not be leveled against the cleric.

In yet another case, Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman remanded an accused in the custody of R.A. Bazaar police for eight days after he was arrested in connection with the murder of a police inspector.

According to the police, Mohammad Akhtar, a resident of Abbottabad, had been declared a proclaimed offender in the murder of Raja Saqlain, who was shot dead along with his official driver in 2004 when he was serving as SHO R.A. Bazaar police.