ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has sought a report from the special judge of Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) Atiqur Rehman for extending the interim bail of alleged extorters five consecutive times.

According to the recommendations of the National Judicial Policy (NJP) 2009, a trial court has to decide the bail plea of an accused within five days.

Therefore, the court can only provide one interim-bail and its period cannot be extended beyond five days.

However, when Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC resumed hearing of the extortion case on Monday, the petitioner’s counsel informed the court that the ATC had granted five extensions in the interim bail of alleged extorters Malik Safdar and others.

The case is based on a petition filed by Amanullah Sheeno, an Afghan national who used to be a vegetable seller in the Fruit and Vegetable Market of Sector I-11. Allegedly, he had later started collecting extortion sum from traders in the name of protection money.

He had approached the court in July alleging that police officials had registered a fake case against him stating that he was involved in collecting extortion. He alleged that the case was registered after he refused to pay extortion to the police.

The IHC then ordered the inspector general (IG) of Islamabad police to take action against all extorters in the market. Subsequently, the police arrested Sheeno and his rivals Malik Safdar and Tariq Safdar. Sheeno is currently in the custody of the Sabzi Mandi police,

The two brothers, Tariq and Malik, later managed to obtain an interim bail from the ATC, and on Monday, Judge Atiqur Rehman gave them another extension in the bail on Monday.

JIT submits fresh report

On Monday, a joint investigation team (JIT) submitted a fresh report before the court regarding extortion activities in the Sabzi Mandi.

Earlier, the police had submitted a report on September 18 before Justice Siddiqui, stating that there were no extortion activities in the market.

This contradicted IG Islamabad Sikandar Hayat’s statement given on September 9 in which he had informed the court that Rs4.5million was being collected as extortion from traders of the market.

The court therefore expressed dissatisfaction over the report, and ordered the Islamabad police, district administration and CDA to submit a complete report.

Subsequently, a fresh report was submitted on Monday.

It was prepared by an assistant superintendent of police (ASP), deputy director of the intelligence bureau, inspector crime investigation department and the SHO of Sabzi Mandi police station.

According to the report, CDA inspector Aurangzeb and supervisor Sagheer had also facilitated extortionists, and had gone underground after the police started arresting extortionists.

“CDA officers used to take money from the vegetable and fruit sellers and confiscated vegetables without due process of law. Aurangzeb…is still at large. His arrest and interrogation is expected to divulge more details regarding the issue of collection and patronisation of extortion,” the report stated.

The report said two major extortion groups were operating in the market and both had employed armed men to collect extortion from traders. One of these, the Nasir Khan group, was patronised by Safdar and comprised Qari Khalil, Marshal, Khan Haji and others. The other group was operated by Sheeno.

According to the report, Nasir Khan and Qari Khalil fled abroad after the police started crackdown against extortionists.

The JIT maintained that 35 members of the Nasir Khan group collected money on a daily basis and handed them over to Nasir Khan. “However, none of them (group members) is aware of further disbursement of the money collected. Further interrogation of the accused … will reveal the identity of distributors of the extortion.”

According to the report, Sheeno also confessed to collecting money from various vendors but did not reveal anything about the distribution of the collected sum. “His connection, if any, with the CDA and police is yet to be ascertained,” the report said. It said the police had pasted public notices at several points in the vegetable market and asked traders to contact the police if anyone demanded extortion in the future.