GUJRANWALA, Sept 25 Anti-Terrorism Court No 1 judge Syed Iftikhar Husain Shah accepted the bail plea of former Sialkot district police officer (DPO) Waqar Ahmad Chohan and ordered his release on Saturday.

Later, the authorities released Chohan from the Sialkot District Jail. The court ordered Chohan to submit Rs100,000 surety bonds in the court.

The former DPO is facing trial in the lynching case of Muneeb Butt and Mughees Butt in village Buttar of Sialkot on Aug 15.

Defence counsels argued that their client had not been nominated in the FIR by the complainant of case but by a joint investigation team after 11 days of the incident. They said Chohan arrived at the lynching spot when the bodies of both brothers had been hanged in a chowk while he controlled the mob and sent the bodies to hospital for autopsy.

They said the complainant of the case also nominated the accused in the FIR after viewing the footage of lynching.

Prosecutors pleaded the former DPO was responsible for the death of the youths as he arrived at the crime scene after one hour. Had he arrived at the scene on time, both brothers would have been saved from the mob which killed them for their alleged role in a robbery-cum-murder in the village. Chohan said it was a verdict of independent judiciary.

96-year jail The Anti-Terrorism Court No 2 judge handed down 96 years imprisonment and a Rs700,000 fine to Muhammad Naeem in murder and police encounter cases on Saturday.

The judge issued arrest warrants for Amanullah, Khawar Ehsan, Rashid and Waseem, also accused in the case. Six others -- Muhammad Asif, Farooq, Kashif, Tariq, Iqbal and Ijaz - have been killed in an encounter with police a few months ago.

According to the prosecution, Naeem attacked a police van near Daska on May 21, 2008, and got freed two men from police custody, killed constable Nasir Mehmood and injured ASI Irfan Ashraf and constable Mukhtar.

PROTEST The residents of Gobind Garh College Road staged a demonstration on Gondlanwala Chowk in protest at a police constable's pestering of girls.

Protesters said constable Rana Amir and some other people teased college girls and thrashed them. Later, the protesters dispersed peacefully.