RAWALPINDI, Aug 20: Police on Sunday arrested an alleged terrorist, who they claimed to have escaped from police custody, and seized explosive material, weapons and classified documents from him.
A senior police official, on condition of anonymity, said Nazir Ahmed, an Afghan national whose family was involved in terrorist activities, was captured during a raid in Westridge.
An FIR under Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) and Explosive Act has been registered against him.
The police have also sought physical remand of the accused from the Anti-Terrorism Court and he is likely to be produced in the court on September 28, sources said.
Nazir Ahmed had been in the custody of Civil Lines police in connection with the investigation of the assassination attempt on President Gen Pervez Musharraf in 2003 on Jhanda Chichi Bridge. However no case had been registered against him.
Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha of the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench on a habeas corpus petition moved by a relative of Nazir Ahmed, had directed the court bailiff, Tariq Mehmood, to recover the detainee from police custody.
When the court bailiff raided the police station, he found Nazir in a lockup, but there was no record of his arrest in the roznamcha (daily diary). The bailiff said he seized the record of the police station but when he tried to take the detainee along with him, the police officer on duty snatched the roznamcha from him and removed Nazir from the scene.
After the court bailiff submitted the report about his raid on the Civil Lines police station and the treatment meted out to him by the police, a three-member bench of Supreme Court directed Inspector General of Police Punjab Ziaul Hassan Khan to register an FIR against SP City Sardar Maqsood and SHO Civil Lines Sohail Ehsan and submit a report in this regard on Monday.
In line with the court’s orders, a criminal case was registered with the Civil Lines police on Saturday night against the SP and SHO.
The IGP Punjab is to appear before the three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Monday and submit report on the registration of a case against the two police officers and recovery of the suspect.