MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 29: A court here on Saturday issued fresh non-bailable arrest warrants for 10 of the 14 accused, including a veteran pro-independence leader and a sitting AJK minister, in a case registered against them 15 years ago.

Additional Sessions Judge Mian Arif Hussain, who had issued similar warrants against the accused last week, expressed anger over non-compliance by the local police and ordered the senior superintendent of police, Muzaffarabad, to ensure that the accused were produced before the court on Oct 15. He warned that police officials would face action if they failed to arrest the accused.

The accused belonging to various pro-independence parties were booked by the Muzaffarabad city police under Sections 147, 148, 149 and 506 of the Penal Code, Sections 3 and 12 of the Explosives Act and Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance for “instigating people against national security and spreading hatred against the government of Pakistan and army besides other disruptive activities”.

The case was registered on Oct 24, 1997, after an anniversary of the foundation day of the AJK government was observed.

Those booked were Amanullah Khan, the then chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, and a party activist Tahir Anwar; National Liberation Front president Shaukat Maqbool Butt, former leader of the Kashmir Freedom Movement Afsar Shahid and National Students’ Federation leaders Engr Khawaja Hassan Mahmood, Fazal Mahmood Baig, Salim Awan, Shaukat Ganai, Aurangzeb, Rameez, Sajjad Khokhar, Ali Shaikh, Ashiq Khan and Altaf Makhdoomi.

Mr Afsar Shahid later switched over to mainstream politics and won a seat in the last year’s elections from Dadyal, Mirpur, on the ticket of the People’s Party. He is currently a cabinet member, holding the portfolio of Zakat and Ushr. Engr Mahmood, Mr Awan and Mr Makhdoomi took political asylum in Belgium, the US and Cyprus, respectively. Mr Anwar has settled in the UAE.

The rest are living in AJK or Pakistan. On Saturday, four of those living in AJK — Mr Baig, Mr Shaikh, Mr Aurangzeb and Mr Ganai (now a Muslim League-N leader) — appeared before the court, but the proceedings were deferred by the judge until the arrest of the remaining accused.

A court official said if the accused did not appear or were not produced before the court on the next hearing, they might be declared absconders.

The case titled ‘AJK government versus Amanullah Khan’ has been reconstructed by the police after it was shelved in the wake of loss of record in the 2005 earthquake and the death of the SHO concerned.—Tariq Naqash