LAHORE: Suspected land grabber Malik Mansha Ali Khokhar, commonly known as Mansha ‘Bomb’, was presented before a special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Wednesday for illegally grabbing land in Lahore’s Johar Town area.
The public prosecutor petitioned for a physical remand of the suspect.
In addition to that, he was also presented before another ATC in a case pertaining to an attack on a team of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA). The court, in this case, granted Mansha judicial remand till October 22.
Earlier on Tuesday, a special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had granted him a one-day transit bail. The Islamabad police had shifted Mansha amid tight security from the Secretariat Police to the court’s premises.
While hearing the case, ATC Judge Syed Kausar Abbas Zaidi accepted Mansha’s request to wait for his counsel and took a recess. Following this, the accused told the court that he “feared” that the police would kill him.
Thus, the judge granted one-day transit bail to the accused and ordered the authorities to present Mansha before a court in Lahore on Wednesday.
Mansha and his sons are accused of illegally grabbing land in Lahore’s Johar Town vicinity.
Earlier, on October 15, the accused was arrested from the Supreme Court premises after he had gone there to “surrender himself” and also demanded to meet Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar.
Wanted by police in over 80 criminal cases in the provincial capital, Mansha had spent more than four to five hours in the SC premises hoping to meet the CJP in person.
In a letter to the apex court, Mansha wrote that suo motu proceedings had been initiated against him but he was unable to appear before the SC on the date fixed as he was unaware of the proceedings. The letter added that Mansha was living at a different address than the one mentioned on his CNIC.
However, the chief justice did not take the matter up and did not meet Mansha. The suspected land grabber was taken into custody by officials of the Secretariat Police Station.
Earlier, Mansha had told reporters that the Punjab police had added ‘Bomb’ to his name to malign him. He had alleged that he was being victimized due to a political rivalry. Mansha said that he had hidden from the police so that he could appear before CJP, adding that he would wait for the top judge.
He added that he had come to the SC of his own accord so that he could surrender himself for arrest as per the law.
The man has alleged that ‘false cases’ were created against him by former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif after his son contested the election on a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ticket.
On Oct 4, an investigating officer (IO) told the court that the suspects had gone underground since the Supreme Court ordered a crackdown on land grabbers in Johar Town.
The IO asked the court to issue warrants for the arrest of the suspects. The court accepted the request and issued warrants, directing the police to produce them on October 10.