Two Marriot blast suspects freed

Published October 19, 2008

TOBA TEK SINGH, Oct 18: After keeping in custody for over two weeks, law-enforcement agencies have released two more of the four brothers caught for their alleged involvement in the Sept 20 Marriot hotel blast, on Saturday evening in Rawalpindi.

On Sept 29, Hameed Afzal, alias Billa, and his three brothers Imran Afzal, Majeed Afzal and Kamran Afzal, were captured from Chak 256-GB, Philour, and were taken to undisclosed locations.

Earlier, the law-enforcement agencies had released Imran Afzal on Oct 7 after interrogating him for eight days.

On Friday, an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi gave their fourth brother, Hameed Afzal, into policy custody on seven-day physical remand for his alleged involvement in the Sept 20 blast.

Talking to Dawn on telephone, Kamran Afzal and Majeed Afzal confirmed that they had been released.

CASE: The Chuttiana police arrested the writer of an objectionable booklet ‘Alham-i-Ghous’, on Saturday.

Ghulam Murtaza of Chak 327-GB was booked under Section 295-A, 295-C of the PPC and 16 MPO on a complaint lodged by Dr Shafiq Ahmad stating that he had claimed himself as a prophet of God in his booklet and distributed it in different villages of Toba Tek Singh and Shorkot areas.

PROTEST: Scores of workers of Gojra small industrial units under the banner of Labour Qaumi Movement (LQM) demonstrated on Saturday to protest unscheduled electricity loadshedding.

They marched on different city roads to reach Fesco offices where they staged a sit-in for an hour and chanted slogans.