PESHAWAR, Feb 20: An anti-terrorism court sent to judicial remand a union council nazim who had been detained for a day in connection with recent acts of violence. The presiding officer of the court, Mr Shahjee Rehman Khan, rejected a request to place the nazim under police custody and called for a final charge-sheet of the case before the next date of hearing.

Advocate Rehmatullah Khan, the union council nazim in Shaheen Muslim Town, was produced before the court amid tight security. The investigation officer stated that police needed custody of the accused as he had been involved in acts of violence in the jurisdiction of Gulbahar police station.

Police alleged that he was involved in setting alight buses of Daewoo company, ransacking Telenor offices and damaging other properties.

The IO stated that the accused along with others had inflicted losses worth millions of rupees to public and private properties. The nazim denied the charge and stated he was innocent. He said that District Nazim Haji Ghulam Ali had asked all the union council nazims to try to calm the protesters down.

Mr Rehmatullah said that he had also tried to placate the crowd. He said that he had tried to contact the town council I nazim Haji Shoukat Ali so that he could come to the scene of violence and assist him in dispersing the mob.

A large number of lawyers visited the anti-terrorism court and requested the presiding officer not to place him under police custody as he belonged to a respected profession and could not even think of indulging in acts of violence.

UC NAZIM GET BAIL: Courts granted bail to a union council nazim and seven juvenile offenders arrested in connection with the recent riots.

An anti-terrorism court, presided over by Shahjee Rehman Khan, allowed bail to the nazim of union council Shaheen Muslim Town, Rehmatullah Khan advocate.

The court ordered that the accused-petitioner should be released after furnishing two sureties of Rs100,000 each.

The court observed that keeping in view the evidence on record, the petitioner deserved to be released on bail.

The Gulbahar police arrested him on Feb 16, 2006, and the ATC sent him to prison on Feb 17, 2006.

The police alleged that the nazim had been involved in setting on fire the buses of Daewoo company and ransacking offices of the Telenor Communication company in Nishtarabad.

Various lawyers, including the Peshawar District Bar Association’s general secretary Ishaq Khalil, appeared in support of the nazim and contended that he was innocent and implicated in the case.

They claimed that he was trying to disperse the unruly mob and alleged that the police officer concerned had booked him to settle some personal scores with him.