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February 17, 2006 Friday Muharram 18, 1427

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346 detained in Peshawar for rioting produced in courts



By Waseem Ahmad Shah


PESHAWAR, Feb 16: Police on Thursday produced about 346 persons, including over 50 juveniles, as accused rioters in different courts. The courts remanded 51 in police custody for two days and sent the rest to prison. Police had arrested them in connection with the Wednesday riots in the city.

An anti-terrorism court, headed by Shehjee Rehman Khan, fixed different dates from Feb 28 to March 3, for hearing, and directed the police concerned to file complete charge-sheets of the cases before the relevant dates.

At the very outset of the proceedings, Mr Khan pointed out that he had not been delegated powers of the juvenile court under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000, therefore, he could not deal children’s cases.

Officials of different police stations had not separated the juvenile offenders from adults and brought them handcuffed in violation of the law.

Mr Khan said he would ascertain the cases of under-18 accused and send them to the concerned juvenile courts.

Advocates appearing for the accused-persons contended that not a single leader giving call for the strike had been arrested.

They said the presidents of traders and transport associations, Haji Haleem Jan and Haji Almas Khan respectively, should be arrested as they had instigated people to violence.

The 346 arrested persons were kept in nine different police stations. Some of them have been charged only for rioting, whereas various others have been accused of damaging and setting on fire different properties, including a KFC fast food restaurant, buses of Daewoo company, offices of Telenor, banks, shops and leasing companies.

Many offenders have been charged under Section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act, Sections 148 and 149 (rioting while armed with deadly weapons), Sections 427 and 436 (damage to public property and money) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

The University Town police produced 71 persons before the court, Gulbahar police 91, Hasthnagri police 54, East Cantt police 30, West Cantonment police 37, Kabuli police 8, Chamkani police 13, Faqirabad police 19 and Hayatabad police 23 accused people.

The ATC remanded 40 of the arrested persons by the Gulbahar police and 11 by the Hayatabad police into the custody of police. The arrested persons in Gulbahar have been charged with setting on fire the buses of Daewoo company and ransacking the office of Telenor.

Some juvenile offenders were crying in the courtroom, saying that they were innocent and had been picked up from outside their houses or while returning from schools. Ages of some of them ranged between 10 to 15 years.

Almost all of them complained of severe torture by the police in detention during the night. They said they could not walk due to severe thrashing at the hands of the officials.

Counsel of two juveniles, Fahad Ahmad and Khalid Noor, produced a certificate from the principal of the Peshawar Public School, which certified that they have been studying in 5th and 9th classes, respectively.

He requested the court to separate them from adult prisoners. The court accepted his plea and ordered that they should be produced before a juvenile court.

“I study in the FG Boys High School and was going to market for purchasing some household items in the afternoon when the police arrested me,” said Nasir Bilal detained by the West Cant police officials.

Two other arrested persons Ghuncha Gul and Yaseen, hailing from Kurram Agency, said at the time of arrest, they were boarding a rickshaw to go to the airport to receive a relative returning from Haj.

All the eight persons arrested by the Kabuli police were juveniles. They were also sent to the juvenile court concerned, which sent them to prison.

The ATC observed that the police had not arrested any of the leaders who had given a call for those violent demonstrations.

A counsel pointed out that many arrested persons were innocent. “At the time of the riots, the police had left the scene and, later, they arrested innocent boys,” said advocate Sheharyar Khan, who appeared for some offenders.

The investigation officer in these cases, Kiramat Shah, said an accused person would never accept his guilt and same was the case of these arrested persons.

He told the court that they had damaged public and private properties to the tune of millions of rupees.



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