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| India-Pakistan |
| NWFP govt orders police to delete terrorism charges |
| 2006-09-08 |
| The NWFP government on Thursday removed terrorism charges against six shopkeepers arrested for selling cassettes, CDs and literature containing hate speeches and articles against the Shia community and the federal government. Assistant Public Prosecutor Fahim Khan told Daily Times that the police deleted the charges brought against the suspects under sections 8 and 9 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) on the NWFP governmentÂ’s orders. The suspects would now be tried in a civil court, he added. Peshawar police arrested the shopkeepers on August 31 and registered cases against them under sections 8 and 9 of the ATA and 295-A of the Pakistan Penal Code. On Monday, JI MNA Sabir Hussain Awan criticised Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani for allowing the shopkeepers to be charged under anti-terrorism laws. Durrani told Awan that he had no knowledge of the arrests and ordered senior police officials to release the arrested people and remove the charges against them. Sources told Daily Times that the police had taken action against the shopkeepers on the orders of the federal government and had not consulted the provincial government. The police said they conducted the raids in Kabuli and Qissa Khawani bazaars to prevent sectarian violence resulting from hate literature. According to the first information report, the police said that the CDs and cassettes found in the suspectsÂ’ possession contained anti-Shia and anti-government speeches recorded by leaders of the banned militant organisation Sipah-e-Sahaba, including Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Maulana Ziaur Rehman and Maulana Azam Tariq, Tariq Jamil, leader of the Tablighi Jamaat, and Mufti Munir Shakir. |
| Posted by:Fred |