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PESHAWAR, Jan 15: A local court on Monday dismissed the bail petition of a naib qasid of the Intelligence Bureau, who was charged with planting explosives near the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.
Mohammad Tufail was arrested on Dec 5 when he dropped a packet near the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. Police had recovered a stick of explosives from the packet and registered an FIR against Tufail under the Explosive Substance Act and the Anti-terrorism Act. However, charges under the ATA were dropped by the prosecution later.
Fakhr Alam Jhagra appeared for the petitioner. He said the charges under the ATA had been dropped and his client was now charged only under the Explosive Substance Act. He contended that the petitioner had no intention to conduct any illegal act.
He said the explosive stick did not have any fuse or detonator and it was not dangerous. He said the accused had dropped the packet but he did not know about the presence of the explosive stick in it. The counsel said if Tufail had any bad intentions or he intended to blow up the secretariat he would have placed a proper explosive device there, instead of a harmless explosive stick.
The public prosecutor told the court of judicial magistrate, Aurangzeb Khan, that the accused had been caught red-handed. He said planting of explosives was a crime irrespective of intentions behind it.
The accused had also been charged in another FIR registered the same day at the East Cantonment police station. A joint director of the IB, Zafarullah Khan, had also been charged in the case in which police had alleged that Mr Khan had forcefully taken away Tufail from the custody of police along with the seized explosive.
The pre-arrest bail of Mr Khan was confirmed by an additional district and sessions judge on Jan 5, and Tufail was also granted bail in that case.
TRIBUNAL CHIEF: Justice (retd) Shehzad Akber Khan has been appointed as the chairman of the NWFP environmental tribunal by the law and justice division.
A notification was issued a few days ago in this regard. Justice Khan has been appointed as the tribunal’s chairman for a period of two years.
The post was lying vacant since Sept 20, when the tenure of the-then chairman, Justice (retd) Abdur Rauf Lughmani, passed away. Recently, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, took notice of the vacant positions in all the provinces. He also expressed his concerns over environmental degradation.
Justice Khan is a former judge of the Peshawar High Court, who retired on March 6. He has also served as the deputy attorney-general of Pakistan.
Soon after his appointment, the tribunal fixed Jan 27 for the hearing of three of the cases pending before it. The tribunal is also expected to receive new cases.
