An Islamabad court on Friday granted post-arrest bail to journalist Waheed Murad against Rs20,000 surety bail bonds following his two-day physical remand under the country’s cybercrime laws for allegedly posting “intimidating content” online.

His family had earlier filed a petition before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for his recovery, saying that he was “forcibly disappeared by unknown” individuals from his house in the federal capital.

The petition, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was filed by Murad’s mother-in-law Abida Nawaz through lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha.

Murad was produced by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday before a district and sessions court following the completion of his two-day physical remand.

The case was heard by Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah, and Murad was represented by lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha.

Judge Shah asked the FIA what evidence has been collected.

Mazari said: “He has quoted and posted the words of Akhtar Mengal.”

Chattha added to this, saying: “The first tweet was a statement by Akhtar Mengal.”

The FIA’s investigation officer said: “The post by Akhtar Mengal that is being discussed said that Baloch genocide is being committed.”

The court then granted Murad’s post-arrest bail in the sum of Rs50,000 surety.

However, the bail bonds were lowered to Rs 20,000 on the request of Murad’s lawyers, and he was released after the surety bonds were submitted to the court.

Meanwhile, the court disposed of the application after the withdrawal of the application challenging the remand in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Afzal Majuka.

Petition

In her petition, Murad’s mother Abida claimed the journalist was “forcibly disappeared from his home in Sector G-8, Islamabad on Wednesday at around 2:05am by unknown officials presumably belonging to intelligence agencies, and accompanied by persons in black uniforms and two police double cabin vehicles”.

She described herself as an “eyewitness to the enforced disappearance [of Murad], and was also herself manhandled by the abductors who also took away her phone”.

The state, the defence ministry, the Islamabad police chief and the Karachi Company police’s station house officer were listed as respondents in the case.

The petition urged the IHC to direct the respondents to “immediately trace and produce” Murad before the court.

It pleaded that the court also order the respondents to “identify and investigate those responsible, directly or indirectly, for abducting and illegally detaining” the journalist, as well as to disclose information on any cases filed against him.

The petition also requested that the authorities provide the counsel and family access to Murad. It further urged the IHC to direct the respondents to disclose any charges against the journalist and where he was being kept.

The petition highlighted that Murad had raised his voice about the recent alleged enforced disappearance of US-based journalist Ahmad Noorani’s two brothers.

“The pattern of his abduction was the same as in the past,” Mazari told AFP. “The abductors, their modus operandi, and the way they stormed the house in the dead of night make it clear who they are.”

It later emerged that a first information report (FIR) was filed against the journalist by the FIA’s Cyber Crime Reporting Centre under Sections 9 (glorification of an offence), 10 (cyber-terrorism), 20 (malicious code) and 26A (punishment for false and fake information) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), 2016.

It said Murad was “found sharing highly intimidating content” on social media platforms through which he had “knowingly disseminated/propagated, fake, false, misleading and misinterpreted information leading to hatred against the government functionaries”.

The FIR quoted one of his recent social media posts regarding the issues in Balochistan. It also said that he had shared a FactFocus report by journalist Ahmad Noorani, “in which the pictures of the family members of the chief of army staff were shared publicly along with highly intimidating remarks, violating their privacy”.

Urdu News, the outlet for which Murad works, reported on the incident as well. According to Urdu News, Murad has previously also worked at News One and daily Ausaf, as well as runs a news website Pakistan24.