| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Hundreds of suspects secure release on bail from courts |
| 2010-12-20 |
| [Pak Daily Times] Hundreds of terror suspects secured their release on bail from anti-terrorism courts and the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar High Court (PHC) after the prosecution failed to produce concrete evidence against them. The suspects were jugged by law enforcement agencies from conflict zones on charges of being involved in terrorism. Recently, the PHC granted bail to two alleged Taliban, Hashim Khan and Muhammad Sharif, believed to be close aides of Mohammedan Khan, the front man of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) in Swat. The suspects, Hashim Khan and Mohammad Sharif, were accused of launching mortar and rocket attacks on cop shoppes and police convoys in Swat. A single bench comprising Justice Ziaur Rehman granted them bail, observing that the investigation by police often resulted in release of the suspects. "Had the police conducted proper investigation, the suspects would have been convicted by the courts," he observed. Saeed Shangla, counsel for the petitioners, contended that there was no solid proof against them. On December 10, a single bench, comprising Justice Dost Muhammad Khan, granted bail to three terror suspects, Sherzaman, Jan Said and Aurangzeb, accused of blowing two police posts in Buner district last year. Advocates Khawaja Muhammad Khan Gara and Ghulam Nabi Khan had appeared for the petitioners. They stated that two police posts were blown up at Gagra and Bagra areas in Buner district about which an FIR was registered on May 2, 2009 The bench regretted that authorities always blamed courts for the release of suspects and did not accept their own incompetence. On May 7, the PHC division bench headed by Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan had issued release order of four terror suspects after the prosecution had failed to produce even a single piece of evidence against them. The accused had filed their writ petitions for bail under Article 199 of the constitution in the PHC. The police had jugged and charged Muhammad Ilyas and three others on October 13, 2009, in an attack on a police post situated in the limits of Badhaber cop shoppe. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Muhammad Iqbal Mohmand told the court that the intelligence agencies wanted to handover 2,900 terror suspects to the provincial government, but the government said it had no facilities to keep them. The president had promulgated the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance 2009, on October 1, 2009. Following completion of the constitutional life of 120 days of that ordinance, it was re-promulgated in February 2010. The ordinance lapsed on May 31. The government believed that amendments in the ATA would help in taking appropriate action against the cut-throats involved in terrorism in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Legal experts say that courts could not stop release of terror suspects and now it was up to the law enforcement agencies to provide sufficient evidence against the suspects otherwise the high court would continue to grant them bail. Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) General Secretary Aminur Rehman Yousafzai told Daily Times that terror suspects were getting their release easily on bail from courts as both the police and prosecution fails in proving terror charges against them in courts. On the other hand, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that cut-throats had not received an exemplary punishment from anti-terrorism courts. He said the government was going to amend the terror laws, as the cut-throats would get exemplary punishment from the courts. |
| Posted by:Fred |