PESHAWAR, Aug 12: The Peshawar High Court here on Monday granted bail to 20 tenants arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, during a land-eviction drive by the police in Charsadda district.

A single bench of the court comprising Justice Shehzad Akber Khan directed that the accused-applicants should be released after furnishing two sureties each of Rs100,000.

Their bail applications were earlier rejected by the anti- terrorism court here. The police had registered an FIR against hundreds of tenants under section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act read with section 147, 148, 353, 337 and 109 of Pakistan Penal Code.

The police claimed that the accused had illegally occupied lands in different areas of the district and when police went for expelling them from the land of one of the owners, Akber Nawaz, the accused started firing. They were also charged of taking away a tractor and setting fire on some of the properties.

Advocate Abdul Lateef Afridi appeared for the tenants and contended that they were falsely implicated in the case. He added that the malafide on part of the police was evident from the content of the FIR as the case was registered under the ATA, 1997, whereas the alleged offence did not attract that law. he questioned that how could tenants be arrested under the ATA.