The Lahore High Court has issued notice to the police and other respondents on a petition by the Punjab government appealing an anti-terrorism court’s decision to exclude terrorism charges from an FIR against some Punjab University students.
A division bench headed by Justice Najamul Hasan Sheikh issued notice to the Lahore deputy inspector general for operations for December 6.
A lawyer representing the Punjab government submitted that the police had registered an FIR against the six students for harassing fellow students, causing unrest on campus and creating a threat of violence.
He argued that the anti-terrorism court’s decision to exclude sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act from the potential list of charges against the students was wrong. He said that the government had solid evidence that the accused had committed offences listed under the ATA. He asked the court to overturn the anti-terrorism court’s order.
Students remanded in police custody for two days
A judicial magistrate has remanded six Punjab University students affiliated with Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) in Muslim Town police custody for two days.
Hafiz Wajid, Abdul Kabeer, Farooq Khan, Adam Malik, Zubair Sahi and Umar Balli are accused of assaulting two teachers, stealing their phones and money, attempting to kill them, firing in the air, and setting fire to public property.
Muslim Town police asked the court to remand them in police custody for 10 days. The magistrate granted them two days.
Another magistrate issued a show cause notice to the Muslim Town SHO for not producing the police record before the court hearing the after-arrest bail pleas of 13 students. The counsel for the students filed the after-arrest bail pleas on Tuesday, after they had been sent on judicial remand for 14 days. The court summoned the police record but no one appeared on behalf of the police. The court on Wednesday issued show cause notice to the SHO for December 5 (today).
A magistrate had on Tuesday remanded 22 students in judicial custody for 14 days. Eight of them were granted bail in an FIR registered against them for alleged rioting, but the court also sent them on judicial remand as they were nominated in nine other FIRs.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2013.