KARACHI:
Rangers on Friday produced in a local court some 58 more suspects arrested by the law-enforcers during Wednesday’s pre-dawn raid on Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) headquarters ‘Nine Zero’ in Karachi, sources reported.
32 of 58 suspected criminals were remanded into Rangers custody for 90 days by Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), while the remaining ones were handed over to police.
Officials 19 others have been released.
The accused were brought blindfolded and handcuffed to the court amidst a large contingent of police and paramilitary Rangers.
The ATC judge granted the Rangers 90 days custody of the men in order to investigate the weapons charges against them.
Under the conventional criminal laws courts are allowed to hold suspects for week, but this period increases to 90 days under the recently passed Pakistan Protection Ordinance (PPO) which deals with terror cases.
Yesterday, the court remanded 28 suspects in custody, including senior MQM leader Amir Khan.
The suspects include Faisal Mehmood alias Mota, Ubaid K2, Farhan Shabbir alias Mullah, Noor-ud-Din Subhani, Asif Burger, Ammar alias Sarkata and others.
Faisal, who was also arrested during the raid, had been convicted of murdering TV journalist Wali Babar.
On Wednesday, the paramilitary Rangers raided ‘Nine Zero’ and surrounding areas, seizing a “huge quantity” of weapons and arresting several suspects, including some convicts.
The raid sparked an angry response from MQM whose leader Altaf Hussain claimed that the security personnel brought weapons and ammunitions ‘wrapped in blankets’ with them and then claimed recovery from there.
However, the security forces denied the charge and were hailed by Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Naveed Mukhtar who visited Rangers headquarters and appreciated the troops for the raid.
