RAWALPINDI, March 9: Three men arrested last year for alleged links with Faisal Shahzad, indicted in the US for attempting to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square, have moved an acquittal plea with the anti-terrorism court carrying out their trial. Hunbal Akhtar and Mohammad Shoaib Mughal, residents of Rawalpindi, and Mohammad Shahid Hussain, a resident of Islamabad, moved the application under section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), maintaining they had falsely been involved in the case.

The three men were booked by Sihala police in Islamabad on September 5 last year after they were arrested from Islamabad Highway along with a vehicle, a laptop, and pro-Taliban literature. Special Judge ATC-I Malik Akram Awan put of the hearing till March 12.

“In their application, the men maintained that they were picked by intelligence agencies in May last year from their residences and their relatives had registered FIRs against their abduction,” said Advocate Basharratullah Khan, who is representing them. He said a report of the inquiry commission – set up by the Ministry of Interior having three retired judges to trace the missing persons – backed the men’s plea that they were taken away by intelligence agencies.

Prosecution lawyer Tayyab Shah, opposing the acquittal plea on the report of the inquiry commission, said it could only become part of evidence in the case.

The prosecution said the three accused in their statements under section 164 of CPC before a judicial magistrate had confessed ties with Faisal Shahzad and providing him 43,000 US dollars for the alleged attack. The prosecution lawyer said the investigators had obtained the recording data of conversation between the accused and Faisal.