Fahad Altaf
RAWALPINDI: An anti terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday sent seven men including Top City owner, who are facing charges of having links with MQM London and keeping explosives, to Adiala Jail on judicial remand till June 21. ATC No 2 Special Judge Asif Majeed Awan, while rejecting plea of Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Rawalpindi of extension in physical remand of accused, has sent seven men including Top City owner Kunwar Moeez Khan to Adiala Jail and ordered CTD to probe the accused in jail if needed. The other six accused were identified as Essa Khan, Khawaja Ashar, Ghulam Yasin, Aslam Khan and Fayyaz Khan. Earlier, Station House Officer (SHO) Police Station (PS) CTD Khan Muhammad presented the 7 accused before ATC amid tight security and told the judge that CTD arrested them during a raid on a house in Askari-12 and later on in federal capital and a Top City, a private housing society besides recovering hand grenades, weapons and explosive from their possession.
A case on terrorism charges has also been lodged against the accused. He pleaded the judge to grant ten days more remand of the accused as CTD has to grill them. However, Faisal Qausain Mufti and Naqash Ashraf, the lawyer for Kunwar Moeez, apposed CTD plea arguing the investigation agency has failed in obtaining any substantial evidence against his client despite grilling them for more than 26 days. He said CTD was not assisting Rangers during raid on house and housing society of his client.
He said CTD showed licensed weapons of Essa Khan in possession of his client Moeez Khan which exposed the malafide and lie of the raiding rangers. The lawyer told court Moeez was roped in the case in a bid to grab his multi-billion housing society locate near New Islamabad Airport. Similarly, GM Shah and Ishtiaq Ahmed Mirza, representing Essa Khan, said their client is innocent and have nothing to do with the case. They said Essa Khan is a businessman who is also providing security gadgets to Pakistan Army besides participating shooting contests held by army.
The lawyers said their clients were held on May 12 but case was registered against them on May 17. They said Essa has been residing in a military owned housing society near 10 Corps where carrying weapons and explosive was impossible. Rangers and CTD lodged bogus case against our client, they argued. Moreover, an employee of Top City, on order of ATC Judge, also presented two videos before court showing how the Rangers stormed into Top City on May 12 and smashed the CCTV cameras apparently to hide their illegal action against a private housings society.
He told the court luckily two CCTV cameras remained hid from eyes of Rangers that recorded their activities. After conclusion of the comments of defense lawyers, ATC No 2 Judge Asif Majeed Awan sent the seven accused to Adiala Jail on 14 days of judicial remand. On the other hand, SHO PS CTD Rawalpindi Khan Muhammad, while taking exclusively with The Patriot, said the investigators so far could not find any clue about Kunwar Moeez Khan of having links with MQM London.
He said the weapons recovered by Rangers and CTD did not belong to NATO Forces rather some of them have licenses that have been presented by Essa Khan to CTD for verification. He said the verification process of licenses is underway. “Our brother is not a terrorist rather a businessman who also provides security equipments to Pakistan Army,” said Khurshid Khan and Abdul Qadir, the brothers of Essa. Gultasib Mehmood, a citizen, also said his cousin Muhammad Navid who was employed as clerk in Top City was missing since May 12.
He said no body is aware about his and two others including Moeez’s father in law whereabouts. He appealed Chief of Army Staff to order Rangers to release the detainees or produce them before court of law if they are guilty. It may be noted that on May 12 Pakistan Rangers have stormed into house of Top City owner Kunwar Moeez Khan located at Islamabad and held him along with his father in law, brother in law and 20 other servants.
Later on Rangers raided top city and rounded up some proclaimed offenders involved in Karachi unrest besides recovering huge cache of weapons. Earlier, Rangers and CTD also swooped into house of Essa Khan in Askari-12 recovering arms and ammunition and explosives including hand grenades. It was unearthed during investigation that the weapons recovered from two sites belonged to NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan. Rangers and CTD also accused Moeez Khan of having links with MQM London chief Altaf Hussain
